Speech perception in older hearing impaired listeners: benefits of perceptual training. 2015

David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
Human Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory, VANCHCS, 150 Muir Rd., Martinez, CA, 95553, United States of America; UC Davis Department of Neurology, 4860 Y St., Suite 3700, Sacramento, CA, 95817, United States of America; Center for Neurosciences, UC Davis, 1544 Newton Ct., Davis, CA, 95616, United States of America; UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain, 202 Cousteau Place, Suite 201, Davis, CA, 95616, United States of America.

Hearing aids (HAs) only partially restore the ability of older hearing impaired (OHI) listeners to understand speech in noise, due in large part to persistent deficits in consonant identification. Here, we investigated whether adaptive perceptual training would improve consonant-identification in noise in sixteen aided OHI listeners who underwent 40 hours of computer-based training in their homes. Listeners identified 20 onset and 20 coda consonants in 9,600 consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) syllables containing different vowels (/ɑ/, /i/, or /u/) and spoken by four different talkers. Consonants were presented at three consonant-specific signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) spanning a 12 dB range. Noise levels were adjusted over training sessions based on d' measures. Listeners were tested before and after training to measure (1) changes in consonant-identification thresholds using syllables spoken by familiar and unfamiliar talkers, and (2) sentence reception thresholds (SeRTs) using two different sentence tests. Consonant-identification thresholds improved gradually during training. Laboratory tests of d' thresholds showed an average improvement of 9.1 dB, with 94% of listeners showing statistically significant training benefit. Training normalized consonant confusions and improved the thresholds of some consonants into the normal range. Benefits were equivalent for onset and coda consonants, syllables containing different vowels, and syllables presented at different SNRs. Greater training benefits were found for hard-to-identify consonants and for consonants spoken by familiar than unfamiliar talkers. SeRTs, tested with simple sentences, showed less elevation than consonant-identification thresholds prior to training and failed to show significant training benefit, although SeRT improvements did correlate with improvements in consonant thresholds. We argue that the lack of SeRT improvement reflects the dominant role of top-down semantic processing in processing simple sentences and that greater transfer of benefit would be evident in the comprehension of more unpredictable speech material.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D008297 Male Males
D008875 Middle Aged An adult aged 45 - 64 years. Middle Age
D010353 Patient Education as Topic The teaching or training of patients concerning their own health needs. Education of Patients,Education, Patient,Patient Education
D010470 Perceptual Masking The interference of one perceptual stimulus with another causing a decrease or lessening in perceptual effectiveness. Masking, Perceptual,Maskings, Perceptual,Perceptual Maskings
D012048 Correction of Hearing Impairment Procedures for correcting HEARING DISORDERS. Correction of Auditory Perception,Habilitation of Hearing Impairment,Hearing Impaired Rehabilitation,Rehabilitation of Hearing Impaired,Audiologic Habilitation,Audiologic Rehabilitation,Aural Habilitation,Aural Rehabilitation,Correction of Hearing Loss,Habilitation of Hearing Impaired,Rehabilitation of Hearing Impairment,Audiologic Habilitations,Audiologic Rehabilitations,Auditory Perception Correction,Auditory Perception Corrections,Aural Habilitations,Aural Rehabilitations,Habilitation, Audiologic,Habilitation, Aural,Habilitations, Audiologic,Habilitations, Aural,Hearing Impaired Habilitation,Hearing Impaired Habilitations,Hearing Impairment Correction,Hearing Impairment Corrections,Hearing Impairment Habilitation,Hearing Impairment Habilitations,Hearing Impairment Rehabilitation,Hearing Impairment Rehabilitations,Hearing Loss Correction,Hearing Loss Corrections,Impaired Habilitation, Hearing,Impaired Habilitations, Hearing,Impairment Correction, Hearing,Impairment Corrections, Hearing,Impairment Habilitation, Hearing,Impairment Habilitations, Hearing,Impairment Rehabilitation, Hearing,Impairment Rehabilitations, Hearing,Loss Correction, Hearing,Loss Corrections, Hearing,Perception Correction, Auditory,Perception Corrections, Auditory,Rehabilitation, Audiologic,Rehabilitation, Aural,Rehabilitation, Hearing Impaired,Rehabilitations, Audiologic,Rehabilitations, Aural
D006310 Hearing Aids Wearable sound-amplifying devices that are intended to compensate for impaired hearing. These generic devices include air-conduction hearing aids and bone-conduction hearing aids. (UMDNS, 1999) Ear Molds, Hearing Aid,Aid, Hearing,Aids, Hearing,Hearing Aid
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000368 Aged A person 65 years of age or older. For a person older than 79 years, AGED, 80 AND OVER is available. Elderly
D000369 Aged, 80 and over Persons 80 years of age and older. Oldest Old
D001309 Auditory Threshold The audibility limit of discriminating sound intensity and pitch. Auditory Thresholds,Threshold, Auditory,Thresholds, Auditory

Related Publications

David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
January 2021, Trends in hearing,
David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
July 1980, The Journal of auditory research,
David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
July 2020, Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR,
David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
January 2022, Trends in hearing,
David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
February 1985, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,
David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
April 2013, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology,
David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
January 2020, Trends in hearing,
David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
April 2015, Trends in hearing,
David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
September 2016, Trends in hearing,
David L Woods, and Zoe Doss, and Timothy J Herron, and Tanya Arbogast, and Masood Younus, and Marc Ettlinger, and E William Yund
June 1990, Journal of speech and hearing research,
Copied contents to your clipboard!