Zhou Peng, Zong Shimin, Xi Xin, Xiao Hongjun
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, China.
Senior Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, The Sixth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
Appl Acoust. 2022 Aug;197:108940. doi: 10.1016/j.apacoust.2022.108940. Epub 2022 Jul 22.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, the usage of personal protective equipment (PPE) has become 'the new normal'. Both surgical masks and N95 masks with a face shield are widely used in healthcare settings to reduce virus transmission, but the use of these masks has a negative impact on speech perception. Therefore, transparent masks are recommended to solve this dilemma. However, there is a lack of quantitative studies regarding the effect of PPE on speech perception. This study aims to compare the effect on speech perception of different types of PPE (surgical masks, N95 masks with face shield and transparent masks) in healthcare settings, for listeners with normal hearing in the audiovisual or auditory-only modality. The Bamford-Kowal-Bench (BKB)-like Mandarin speech stimuli were digitally recorded by a G.R.A.S KEMAR manikin without and with masks (surgical masks, N95 masks with face shield and transparent masks). Two variants of video display were created (with or without visual cues) and tagged to the corresponding audio recordings. The speech recording and video were presented to listeners simultaneously in each of four conditions: unattenuated speech with visual cues (no mask); surgical mask attenuated speech without visual cues; N95 mask with face shield attenuated speech without visual cues; and transparent mask attenuated speech with visual cues. The signal-to-noise ratio for 50 % correct scores (SNR) threshold in noise was measured for each condition in the presence of four-talker babble. Twenty-four subjects completed the experiment. Acoustic spectra obtained from all types of masks were primarily attenuated at high frequencies, beyond 3 kHz, but to different extents. The mean SNR thresholds of the two auditory-only conditions (surgical mask and N95 mask with face shield) were higher than those of the audiovisual conditions (no mask and transparent mask). SNR thresholds in the surgical-mask conditions were significantly lower than those for the N95 masks with face shield. No significant difference was observed between the two audiovisual conditions. The results confirm that wearing a surgical mask or an N95 mask with face shield has a negative impact on speech perception. However, wearing a transparent mask improved speech perception to a similar level as unmasked condition for young normal-hearing listeners.
随着新冠疫情的爆发，个人防护装备（PPE）的使用已成为“新常态”。外科口罩和带有面罩的N95口罩在医疗环境中被广泛使用，以减少病毒传播，但这些口罩的使用对言语感知有负面影响。因此，建议使用透明口罩来解决这一困境。然而，关于个人防护装备对言语感知影响的定量研究却很缺乏。本研究旨在比较不同类型的个人防护装备（外科口罩、带有面罩的N95口罩和透明口罩）在医疗环境中对听力正常的听众在视听或仅听觉模式下言语感知的影响。类似Bamford-Kowal-Bench（BKB）的普通话言语刺激由一个G.R.A.S KEMAR人体模型在不戴口罩以及佩戴口罩（外科口罩、带有面罩的N95口罩和透明口罩）的情况下进行数字录制。创建了两种视频显示变体（有或没有视觉线索）并标记到相应的音频记录上。言语录音和视频在以下四种条件下分别同时呈现给听众：有视觉线索的无衰减言语（不戴口罩）；无视觉线索的外科口罩衰减言语；无视觉线索的带有面罩的N95口罩衰减言语；以及有视觉线索的透明口罩衰减言语。在存在四说话者嘈杂声的情况下，针对每种条件测量了50%正确分数时的信噪比（SNR）阈值。24名受试者完成了实验。从所有类型口罩获得的声谱在高于3kHz的高频处主要有衰减，但程度不同。仅听觉的两种条件（外科口罩和带有面罩的N95口罩）的平均SNR阈值高于视听条件（不戴口罩和透明口罩）。外科口罩条件下的SNR阈值显著低于带有面罩的N95口罩。两种视听条件之间未观察到显著差异。结果证实，佩戴外科口罩或带有面罩的N95口罩对言语感知有负面影响。然而，对于听力正常的年轻听众，佩戴透明口罩可将言语感知提高到与不戴口罩时相似的水平。
