Hearing-impaired ears can outperform normal ears at amplitude modulation detection

Evidence

In some way, we can think about this as an indication that an impaired ear provides a more faithful representation of the fluctuations present in sounds. This more faithful representation leads to an internal representation in which the stimulus envelope is exaggerated compared with someone with normal hearing. In fact, when audibility is carefully controlled for and sounds are presented at the same sensation levels, listeners with hearing impairment sometimes demonstrate better amplitude modulation detection thresholds than listeners with normal hearing, in certain circumstances (Bacon & Gleitman, 1992). — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1102

Categorization

• QUESTION: A surprising counterexample to the simple ‘hearing loss degrades temporal processing’ story — worth understanding what circumstances produce superior AM detection.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1102
• XREF: connects to: The ear is most sensitive to amplitude modulation near 4 Hz; Wide-cue pinna size improves MAA only for hearing-impaired listeners; Cochlear gain loss can compensate for temporal coding deficits in AM detection — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5904

Broader Connections

• Cochlear gain loss can compensate for temporal coding deficits in AM detection #corroborates (0.85) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5904