DeRoy Milvae Kristina, Kuchinsky Stefanie E, Nguyen Nicole, Goupell Matthew J
Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14214, USA.
National Military Audiology and Speech Pathology Center, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland 20889, USA.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2025 Apr 1;157(4):2905-2920. doi: 10.1121/10.0036440.
When speech understanding abilities differ across the ears, auditory attention and listening effort could be impacted. Twenty listeners with bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) completed this experiment. Fourteen listeners had symmetric and six listeners had asymmetric functional hearing. Listeners completed monotic and dichotic digit recall with digit string lengths of four and six digits and attention directed to each ear. Pupil size was monitored as an index of listening effort. Individual differences in working memory and inhibition abilities were measured. It was hypothesized that ear asymmetry would lead to poorer listening performance and higher listening effort, and that cognitive abilities would predict both performance and listening effort. Greater differences in performance across ears were observed with asymmetry. Lower listening effort was observed with asymmetry, regardless of which ear was attended. Poorer working memory abilities predicted higher listening effort. These results suggest that asymmetric listeners may experience reduced perception of a poorer ear, and that individuals with poorer working memory abilities are at risk to experience higher listening effort in complex listening environments with CIs. More broadly, these results suggest that the salience of sensory inputs contributes to auditory attention ability and use of cognitive resources.
当双耳的言语理解能力存在差异时，听觉注意力和听能会受到影响。20名佩戴双侧人工耳蜗（CI）的受试者完成了本实验。其中14名受试者的听力功能对称，6名受试者的听力功能不对称。受试者完成了数字串长度为4位和6位的单耳和双耳数字回忆任务，且注意力指向每只耳朵。监测瞳孔大小作为听能的指标。测量了工作记忆和抑制能力的个体差异。研究假设为，耳不对称会导致听能表现较差和听能较高，且认知能力可预测表现和听能。观察到不对称时，双耳的表现差异更大。无论关注哪只耳朵，不对称时的听能均较低。较差的工作记忆能力预示着较高的听能。这些结果表明，听力不对称的受试者可能对较差耳朵的感知能力下降，且工作记忆能力较差的个体在佩戴人工耳蜗的复杂聆听环境中，有听能较高的风险。更广泛地说，这些结果表明，感觉输入的显著性有助于听觉注意力和认知资源的利用。
