Impaired pitch perception hampers understanding speech amid background noise

Evidence

The studies described here both illustrate the importance of pitch perception in our ability to separate a target sound from a background. Given that much of everyday communication occurs in complex environments with many competing signals, robust pitch perception mechanisms are important to facilitate effective communication. Deficits in pitch perception are likely to lead to deficits in the ability to understand speech in the presence of background noise, particularly when that background noise is also speech. As we discuss next, sensorineural hearing loss damages pitch perception and therefore contributes to difficulty communicating in complex environments. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1324

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

Related

• Sensorineural hearing loss damages pitch, harming speech-in-noise communication (similarity 0.91)
• Pitch perception deficits from hearing loss impair speech segregation from noise. (similarity 0.90)
• Pitch cues convey identity, intonation, and emotion beyond mere speech content (similarity 0.84)
• Pitch differences enable selective listening to one talker amid competing voices (similarity 0.84)
• Hearing impairment degrades signal-to-noise tolerance more than quiet speech perception. (similarity 0.84)
• Cognitive contributions to speech perception vary by listening situation (similarity 0.83)
• Cochlear damage increases susceptibility to masking, hurting speech in noise. (similarity 0.83)
• Poor attentional inhibition increases susceptibility to background noise (similarity 0.83)
• Pitch enables voice identification and the cocktail party listening effect (similarity 0.82)
• Loss of neural synchrony can impair speech-in-noise perception. (similarity 0.82)
• Hearing-impaired perception studies illuminate the mechanisms behind normal hearing (similarity 0.82)
• Reduced frequency selectivity hurts speech perception less than reduced audibility does (similarity 0.82)
• Hearing sensitivity alone cannot explain speech-in-noise difficulties (similarity 0.82)
• Pitch strength is a distinct perceptual dimension absent from loudness (similarity 0.82)
• Hearing loss disrupts pitch via place, temporal, and interaural mechanisms. (similarity 0.81)