Souza Pamela E, Boike Kumiko T
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle 98105, USA.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2006 Feb;49(1):138-49. doi: 10.1044/1092-4388(2006/011).
The goal of this study was to examine the ability to combine temporal-envelope information across frequency channels. Three areas were addressed: (a) the effects of hearing loss, (b) the effects of age and (c) whether such effects increase with the number of frequency channels. Twenty adults aged 23-80 years with hearing loss ranging from mild to severe and a control group of 6 adults with normal hearing participated. Stimuli were vowel-consonant-vowel syllables. Consonant identification was measured for 5 conditions: (a) 1-channel temporal-envelope information (minimal spectral cues), (b) 2-channel, (c) 4-channel, (d) 8-channel, and (e) an unprocessed (maximal spectral cues) speech condition. Performance of listeners with normal hearing and listeners with hearing loss was similar in the 1-channel condition. Performance increased with the number of frequency channels in both groups; however, increasing the number of channels led to smaller improvements in consonant identification in listeners with hearing loss. Older listeners performed more poorly than younger listeners but did not have more difficulty combining temporal cues across channels than in a simple, 1-channel temporal task. Age was a significant predictor of nonsense syllable identification, whereas amount of hearing loss was not. The results support an age-related deficit in use of temporal-envelope information with age, regardless of the number of channels.
本研究的目的是检验跨频率通道整合时间包络信息的能力。研究涉及三个方面：（a）听力损失的影响，（b）年龄的影响，以及（c）这些影响是否会随着频率通道数量的增加而增强。20名年龄在23至80岁之间、听力损失程度从轻度到重度的成年人以及6名听力正常的成年人组成的对照组参与了研究。刺激物为元音 - 辅音 - 元音音节。在5种条件下测量辅音识别能力：（a）1通道时间包络信息（最小频谱线索），（b）2通道，（c）4通道，（d）8通道，以及（e）未处理的（最大频谱线索）语音条件。在1通道条件下，听力正常的听众和听力损失听众的表现相似。两组的表现均随着频率通道数量的增加而提高；然而，增加通道数量对听力损失听众的辅音识别改善较小。年长的听众表现比年轻听众差，但在跨通道组合时间线索方面并不比简单的1通道时间任务更困难。年龄是无意义音节识别的显著预测因素，而听力损失程度则不是。结果支持了与年龄相关的在使用时间包络信息方面随年龄增长而出现的缺陷，无论通道数量如何。
