Hwang Jong Ho, Nam Kyoung Won, Jang Dong Pyo, Kim In Young
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University, 222 Wangsimni-ro, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, 133-791 Korea.
2Department of Biomedical Engineering, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan, Korea.
Cogn Neurodyn. 2019 Apr;13(2):151-160. doi: 10.1007/s11571-018-9512-2. Epub 2018 Nov 13.
The characteristics of an auditory steady-state response (ASSR) signal can be affected by the pathophysiological statuses of the left and right ears, such as a smeared sensation by native spectral smearing owing to sensorineural hearing impairment, because they can affect the perception of the stimulus, the degree of concentration on the stimulus and comfort in concentration. However, to date, few studies have examined the effects of such smeared sensations on the amplitude of the evoked ASSR signal. In this study, we synthesized various auditory stimuli with different degrees of spectral smearing using a hearing loss simulator to match the age of participant groups with different degrees of spectral smearing. We then performed three subjective tests, representing symmetric and asymmetric bilateral spectral smearing, with 16 normal-hearing individuals to observe the effects of the severity and symmetricity of bilateral spectral smearing, the value of the carrier frequency of auditory stimuli, and the sex of the individual on the amplitude in evoked ASSR signals. The experimental results demonstrated the following: (1) the application of spectral smearing to normal sounds may result in amplitude-reduced ASSR signals, (2) the effect of spectral smearing on the amplitude of the ASSR signals is most significant when the degrees of bilateral spectral smearing are asymmetric, (3) the selection of carrier frequency in an auditory stimulus can affect the amplitude of evoked ASSR signals regardless of the degree of spectral smearing, and (4) the sex of the individual can affect the amplitude of the evoked ASSR signal in various test conditions. The results of this study can help estimate the effects of smeared sensation by spectral smearing owing to sensorineural hearing impairment on the amplitude of evoked ASSR signals.
听觉稳态反应（ASSR）信号的特征可能会受到左右耳病理生理状态的影响，例如由于感音神经性听力损失导致的天然频谱模糊所产生的模糊感，因为这些状态会影响对刺激的感知、对刺激的专注程度以及专注时的舒适度。然而，迄今为止，很少有研究探讨这种模糊感对诱发ASSR信号幅度的影响。在本研究中，我们使用听力损失模拟器合成了具有不同程度频谱模糊的各种听觉刺激，以匹配不同程度频谱模糊的参与者群体的年龄。然后，我们对16名听力正常的个体进行了三项主观测试，分别代表对称和不对称的双侧频谱模糊，以观察双侧频谱模糊的严重程度和对称性、听觉刺激的载波频率值以及个体性别对诱发ASSR信号幅度的影响。实验结果表明：（1）对正常声音应用频谱模糊可能会导致ASSR信号幅度降低；（2）当双侧频谱模糊程度不对称时，频谱模糊对ASSR信号幅度的影响最为显著；（3）无论频谱模糊程度如何，听觉刺激中载波频率的选择都会影响诱发ASSR信号的幅度；（4）在各种测试条件下，个体性别会影响诱发ASSR信号的幅度。本研究结果有助于评估感音神经性听力损失导致的频谱模糊所产生模糊感对诱发ASSR信号幅度的影响。
