Cochlear outer hair cells enable speech amid noise and reverberation

Evidence

The decreased frequency resolution caused by outer hair cell damage effectively makes the critical bands broader with a lower centre frequency and more overlapping. As more energy is added at each critical band, each band receives input from a wider frequency range, the frequency masking effect is stronger. The result is degraded speech intelligibility in noise. — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2670 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: The cochlea actively amplifies sound and emits echoes that reveal inner-ear health; Outer hair cell damage widens critical bands and worsens speech-in-noise — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2670; Broader cochlear filters shift noise modulation power away from speech-relevant low frequencies

Related

• Outer hair cell damage widens critical bands and worsens speech-in-noise (similarity 0.93)
• Active outer hair cell processing boosts internal response levels by up to 40 dB (similarity 0.87)
• Outer-hair-cell damage raises high-side but not low-side suppression thresholds. (similarity 0.86)
• Noise-induced hearing loss begins with impairment of outer hair cells (similarity 0.86)
• Outer hair cell damage destroys the cocktail party effect (similarity 0.86)
• Excess noise damages cochlear hair cells through several distinct mechanisms (similarity 0.86)
• Outer hair cell damage removes cochlear compressive nonlinearity (similarity 0.85)
• Outer-hair-cell damage destroys the cochlea’s compressive nonlinearity, which hearing aids try to rebuild. (similarity 0.85)
• Outer hair cell loss reduces hearing sensitivity by up to 60 dB (similarity 0.85)
• Hearing damage widens acoustic filter bandwidth, impairing speech separation and sensitivity (similarity 0.85)
• Loud music damages cochlear structures in distinct ways producing distinct perceptual deficits (similarity 0.84)
• Outer hair cells respond better than inner hair cells to low-frequency sound (similarity 0.83)
• Cochlear damage produces distinct perceptual deficits depending on which cell type is affected (similarity 0.83)
• Outer hair cells sit where basilar membrane vibration is greatest (similarity 0.83)
• Each inner hair cell responds best to one frequency plus a widening critical band (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Outer hair cell damage widens critical bands and worsens speech-in-noise #corroborates (0.92) — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2670
• Broader cochlear filters shift noise modulation power away from speech-relevant low frequencies #expands (0.78)