Hearing-impaired deficits persist even when only energetic glimpses are presented

Evidence

With two maskers, the difference in thresholds between groups was 11 dB in the natural condition, and 9 dB in the glimpsed mixture condition. For four maskers these deficits were 7 and 9 dB, respectively. In other words, the group differences present in the natural binaural condition were similar when listeners were presented with the good time-frequency glimpses only. In the control condition where the glimpses contained only target energy, the group differences were even larger (12.6 and 10.8 dB). This suggests that the HI deficit is related to the ability to access or use the available target information and not to difficulties with spatial processing or segregation. Individual performance for natural stimuli was strongly correlated with performance for glimpsed stimuli (r = 0.92), again suggesting a common limit on performance in the two conditions. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1753 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Hearing loss has been shown to reduce speech understanding in spatialized multitalker listening situations, leading to the common belief that spatial processing is disrupted by hearing loss. This paper describes related studies from three laboratories that explored the contribution of reduced target audibility to this deficit. All studies used a stimulus configuration in which a speech target presented from the front was masked by speech maskers presented symmetrically from the sides. Together these studies highlight the importance of adequate stimulus audibility for optimal performance in spatialized speech mixtures and suggest that reduced access to target speech information might explain a substantial portion of the “spatial” deficit observed in listeners with hearing loss. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1719 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Neural hearing damage occurs without measurable threshold elevation; Hearing-impaired speech deficits stem from using glimpsed information, not spatial processing — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1753; Apparent spatial deficits in hearing loss may really be audibility deficits — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1722 (+6 more)

Related

• Hearing-impaired speech deficits stem from using glimpsed information, not spatial processing (similarity 0.95)
• Reduced target audibility, not spatial processing loss, explains much of the hearing-loss speech deficit (similarity 0.94)
• Hearing-impaired listeners’ poor spatial hearing may not reflect actual spatial-processing deficits. (similarity 0.93)
• Perceptual impairments directly cause speech perception problems in natural environments (similarity 0.90)
• Audibility is the greatest factor in hearing-loss communication difficulty (similarity 0.89)
• Most of the SRM deficit in hearing-impaired listeners stems from reduced audibility (similarity 0.88)
• Reduced audibility, not spatial processing loss, may explain apparent spatial deficits in HI listeners (similarity 0.88)
• Apparent spatial deficits in hearing loss may really be audibility deficits (similarity 0.88)
• Energetic masking of targets may not fully explain hearing-impaired spatial speech performance (similarity 0.88)
• Spatial release from masking deficits often reduce to an audibility problem (similarity 0.87)
• Sound localization deficits in hearing loss come from neural coding changes, not audibility. (similarity 0.84)
• Hearing-impaired listeners gain far less from noise gaps than normal listeners (similarity 0.84)
• Audibility alone cannot fully explain hearing-loss speech deficits; aging and cognition also contribute. (similarity 0.83)
• Individual listeners differ in which abilities support their speech perception per situation (similarity 0.83)
• The audiogram cannot predict which hearing-impaired listeners have temporal processing deficits (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Hearing-impaired speech deficits stem from using glimpsed information, not spatial processing #corroborates (0.85) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1753
• Glimpses can fall below audibility threshold for hearing-impaired listeners #corroborates (0.82)
• Reduced target audibility, not spatial processing loss, explains much of the hearing-loss speech deficit #corroborates (0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1719
• Apparent spatial deficits in hearing loss may really be audibility deficits #corroborates (0.78) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1722
• Most of the SRM deficit in hearing-impaired listeners stems from reduced audibility #corroborates (0.75) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1740
• Hearing-impaired listeners fail to gain temporal resolution in background noise #corroborates (0.75) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1933
• Sound localization deficits in hearing loss come from neural coding changes, not audibility. #corroborates (0.73)
• Hearing-impaired listeners retain partial sensitivity to inherent noise fluctuations, unlike CI users #qualifies (0.72) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2200