Leibold Lori J, Browning Jenna M, Buss Emily
Center for Hearing Research, Boys Town National Research Hospital, Omaha, Nebraska, USA.
Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Ear Hear. 2020 Mar/Apr;41(2):259-267. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000000752.
The goal of the present study was to compare the extent to which children with hearing loss and children with normal hearing benefit from mismatches in target/masker sex in the context of speech-in-speech recognition. It was hypothesized that children with hearing loss experience a smaller target/masker sex mismatch benefit relative to children with normal hearing due to impairments in peripheral encoding, variable access to high-quality auditory input, or both.
Eighteen school-age children with sensorineural hearing loss (7 to 15 years) and 18 age-matched children with normal hearing participated in this study. Children with hearing loss were bilateral hearing aid users. Severity of hearing loss ranged from mild to severe across participants, but most had mild to moderate hearing loss. Speech recognition thresholds for disyllabic words presented in a two-talker speech masker were estimated in the sound field using an adaptive, forced-choice procedure with a picture-pointing response. Participants were tested in each of four conditions: (1) male target speech/two-male-talker masker; (2) male target speech/two-female-talker masker; (3) female target speech/two-female-talker masker; and (4) female target speech/two-male-talker masker. Children with hearing loss were tested wearing their personal hearing aids at user settings.
Both groups of children showed a sex-mismatch benefit, requiring a more advantageous signal to noise ratio when the target and masker were matched in sex than when they were mismatched. However, the magnitude of sex-mismatch benefit was significantly reduced for children with hearing loss relative to age-matched children with normal hearing. There was no effect of child age on the magnitude of sex-mismatch benefit. The sex-mismatch benefit was larger for male target speech than for female target speech. For children with hearing loss, the magnitude of sex-mismatch benefit was not associated with degree of hearing loss or aided audibility.
The findings from the present study indicate that children with sensorineural hearing loss are able to capitalize on acoustic differences between speech produced by male and female talkers when asked to recognize target words in a competing speech masker. However, children with hearing loss experienced a smaller benefit relative to their peers with normal hearing. No association between the sex-mismatch benefit and measures of unaided thresholds or aided audibility were observed for children with hearing loss, suggesting that reduced peripheral encoding is not the only factor responsible for the smaller sex-mismatch benefit relative to children with normal hearing.
本研究的目的是比较听力损失儿童和听力正常儿童在言语噪声中识别言语时，目标/掩蔽声性别不匹配所带来的获益程度。研究假设，由于外周编码受损、获得高质量听觉输入的机会不同或两者兼而有之，听力损失儿童相对于听力正常儿童而言，目标/掩蔽声性别不匹配带来的获益更小。
18名学龄期感音神经性听力损失儿童（7至15岁）和18名年龄匹配的听力正常儿童参与了本研究。听力损失儿童均为双侧助听器佩戴者。参与者的听力损失程度从轻度到重度不等，但大多数为轻度至中度听力损失。使用自适应、强制选择程序和图片指认反应，在声场中估计双音节词在双说话者言语掩蔽声中的言语识别阈值。参与者在以下四种条件下分别接受测试：（1）男性目标言语/两个男性说话者掩蔽声；（2）男性目标言语/两个女性说话者掩蔽声；（3）女性目标言语/两个女性说话者掩蔽声；（4）女性目标言语/两个男性说话者掩蔽声。听力损失儿童佩戴个人助听器并设置为常用设置进行测试。
两组儿童均表现出性别不匹配获益，即目标声和掩蔽声性别匹配时比不匹配时需要更有利的信噪比。然而，相对于年龄匹配的听力正常儿童，听力损失儿童的性别不匹配获益程度显著降低。儿童年龄对性别不匹配获益程度没有影响。男性目标言语的性别不匹配获益大于女性目标言语。对于听力损失儿童，性别不匹配获益程度与听力损失程度或助听可听度无关。
本研究结果表明，感音神经性听力损失儿童在被要求在竞争性言语掩蔽声中识别目标词时，能够利用男性和女性说话者言语之间的声学差异。然而，听力损失儿童相对于听力正常的同龄人获益更小。对于听力损失儿童，未观察到性别不匹配获益与未助听阈值或助听可听度测量之间的关联，这表明外周编码减少并非听力损失儿童相对于听力正常儿童性别不匹配获益更小的唯一原因。
