Cochlear-implant users show no sensitivity to inherent noise envelope fluctuations

Evidence

Overall, the HI group showed smaller-than-normal differences between maskers with and without inherent fluctuations. This loss of sensitivity to inherent fluctuations was particularly apparent in the vocoded conditions (Fig. 3 ; lower right panel). However, in contrast to earlier results from CI users (Oxenham and Kreft 2014 ), some differences remained between conditions with and without inherent fluctuations, suggesting that the effects of poorer frequency selectivity are not as profound as for CI users. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2200 (#responds-to, via linked claim)

In contrast, it was found that CI users showed no difference in speech intelligibility between maskers with and without inherent envelope fluctuations. Here, these initial findings in CI users were extended to listeners with cochlear hearing loss and the results were compared with those from normal-hearing listeners at either equal sensation level or equal sound pressure level. The results from hearing-impaired listeners (and in normal-hearing listeners at high sound levels) are consistent with a relative reduction in low-frequency inherent noise fluctuations due to broader cochlear filtering. The reduced effect of inherent temporal fluctuations in noise, due to either current spread (in CI users) or broader cochlear filters (in hearing-impaired listeners), provides a new way to explain the loss of masking release experienced in CI users and hearing-impaired listeners when additional amplitude fluctuations are introduced in noise maskers. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2161 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Missing efferent benefits may explain cochlear-implant users’ speech-in-noise deficits — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1939; Cochlear implant users may lack cocktail-party processing benefits of the MOCR; Hearing-impaired listeners retain partial sensitivity to inherent noise fluctuations, unlike CI users — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2200 (+4 more)

Related

• Hearing-impaired listeners retain partial sensitivity to inherent noise fluctuations, unlike CI users (similarity 0.94)
• Broader cochlear filtering reduces low-frequency noise fluctuations, explaining lost masking release (similarity 0.93)
• Reduced frequency selectivity partly explains diminished sensitivity to inherent masker fluctuations (similarity 0.92)
• Wider peripheral tuning from hearing loss suppresses low-frequency fluctuation amplitude (similarity 0.90)
• The speech-masking potency of inherent noise fluctuations depends on listener frequency selectivity and level (similarity 0.90)
• Missing efferent benefits may explain cochlear-implant users’ speech-in-noise deficits (similarity 0.89)
• Inherent noise fluctuations do not universally limit speech perception across hearing conditions (similarity 0.89)
• Frequency-specific hearing loss drives multi-band hearing aid processing (similarity 0.87)
• Variable-frequency experiments reveal frequency effects that fixed-frequency masking hides. (similarity 0.85)
• Cochlear implant users may lack cocktail-party processing benefits of the MOCR (similarity 0.85)
• Speech-like noise fools the brain and harms intelligibility more than its level suggests (similarity 0.85)
• Hearing loss reduces the effect of inherent noise fluctuations on speech masking. (similarity 0.83)
• Hearing-impaired listeners gain far less from noise gaps than normal listeners (similarity 0.82)
• Cochlear implants give good speech recognition in quiet but poor performance in noise (similarity 0.82)
• Hearing-impaired listeners benefit less from masker fluctuation when spectral resolution is degraded (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Hearing-impaired listeners retain partial sensitivity to inherent noise fluctuations, unlike CI users #responds-to (1.00) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2200
• Broader cochlear filtering reduces low-frequency noise fluctuations, explaining lost masking release #expands (0.85) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2161
• Broader cochlear filters shift noise modulation power away from speech-relevant low frequencies #expands (0.85)
• Inherent noise fluctuations do not universally limit speech perception across hearing conditions #qualifies (0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2166