Alsabbagh Nour, McMurray Bob, Griffiths Timothy D, Berger Joel I, Lee Kyogu, Gander Phillip E, Choi Inyong
Dept of Communication Sciences & Disorders, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, USA.
Dept of Otolaryngology, University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, IA, USA.
medRxiv. 2025 Sep 4:2025.09.02.25334927. doi: 10.1101/2025.09.02.25334927.
Auditory grouping relies on the ability to bind tones with coherent spectral features over time to form auditory objects. Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) degrades spectral resolution, and the extent of this degradation varies with the listening configuration. However, it remains unclear how SNHL impacts auditory grouping and whether different listening configurations affect this ability. This study investigated task performance and cortical activity during auditory object detection in four groups with different listening configurations: Twenty normal-hearing (NH) listeners, seventeen bilateral hearing aid users with acoustic-only stimulation (A-only), thirty-one cochlear implant (CI) users with acoustic and electric stimulation (A+E), and seventeen bilateral CI users with electric-only stimulation (E-only). While electroencephalography was recorded, participants performed a stochastic figure-ground task requiring the detection of spectrally and temporally coherent tone pips embedded in a background of random-frequency tone clouds. All groups achieved above 80% accuracy, though CI groups showed poorer performance compared to NH and A-only groups. Compared to NH listeners, the object-related evoked responses were weaker in A-only listeners and absent in CI groups. Delta (2-3.5Hz) and theta (4-7Hz) event-related synchronization (ERS) to the auditory objects were only observed in the NH group, except for the A+E group, which showed a delta ERS. However, all groups exhibited alpha (8-15Hz) and beta (17-30Hz) event-related desynchronization (ERD), with no significant group differences. Notably, individual differences in alpha and beta ERD predicted task accuracy. These findings suggest that alpha and beta cortical activity, measured during an auditory object detection task, reflects auditory grouping in any listening configuration.
听觉分组依赖于随着时间推移将具有连贯频谱特征的音调绑定在一起以形成听觉对象的能力。感音神经性听力损失（SNHL）会降低频谱分辨率，并且这种降解的程度会因听力配置而异。然而，目前尚不清楚SNHL如何影响听觉分组，以及不同的听力配置是否会影响这种能力。本研究调查了四组具有不同听力配置的受试者在听觉对象检测过程中的任务表现和皮层活动：20名听力正常（NH）的受试者、17名单侧使用仅声学刺激（仅A）的双侧助听器使用者、31名使用声学和电刺激（A + E）的人工耳蜗（CI）使用者，以及17名单侧使用仅电刺激（仅E）的双侧CI使用者。在记录脑电图时，受试者执行了一项随机的图形 - 背景任务，该任务要求检测嵌入在随机频率音调云背景中的频谱和时间上连贯的音调脉冲。所有组的准确率均达到80%以上，不过CI组的表现比NH组和仅A组差。与NH受试者相比，仅A受试者中与对象相关的诱发反应较弱，而CI组中则没有。除了A + E组显示出δ频段事件相关同步（ERS）外，仅在NH组中观察到与听觉对象相关的δ（2 - 3.5Hz）和θ（4 - 7Hz）频段事件相关同步（ERS）。然而，所有组均表现出α（8 - 15Hz）和β（17 - 30Hz）频段事件相关去同步（ERD），且组间无显著差异。值得注意的是，α和β频段ERD的个体差异可预测任务准确率。这些发现表明，在听觉对象检测任务期间测量的α和β皮层活动反映了任何听力配置下的听觉分组。
