Wider auditory filters let noise obscure formants entirely in impaired ears.
Evidence
Wider auditory filters also allow more noise to pass through and obscure spectral contrasts present in sounds. We observe this in the right panel of Figure 3–19, in which the impaired excitation pattern is severely smeared by the presence of the noise, to a much greater extent that the normal-hearing excitation pattern. The two high-frequency formants are essentially completely obscured by the noise. Note that these effects would be further intensified if this simulation included the reduced audibility that is associated with sensorineural hearing loss. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 574
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
- SEED: Possible essay angle: why hearing-impaired listeners struggle most in noise — the double hit of wider filters plus reduced audibility — and whether louder amplification alone can ever fix spectral smearing.
Related
- Wider auditory filters admit excess noise that fully obscures high-frequency formants (similarity 0.95)
- Broad filters and lost suppression increase masking and blur spectral contrasts. (similarity 0.87)
- Wider auditory filters and steeper cochlear compression reduce noise-induced hearing loss. (similarity 0.85)
- Reduced frequency selectivity hurts speech perception less than reduced audibility does (similarity 0.84)
- Impaired frequency selectivity and lost suppression increase masking and reduce spectral contrasts (similarity 0.84)
- Hearing loss widens critical bands and alters music perception itself (similarity 0.83)
- Amplification only compensates for elevated thresholds, not other perceptual deficits from hearing loss. (similarity 0.83)
- Cochlear damage increases susceptibility to masking, hurting speech in noise. (similarity 0.83)
- Hearing damage widens acoustic filter bandwidth, impairing speech separation and sensitivity (similarity 0.83)
- Hearing loss acts like a filter attenuating specific frequencies (similarity 0.82)
- Averaging hearing loss across frequencies can mask serious impairment (similarity 0.82)
- Wide bandwidth noise sounds as loud as a narrower tone despite lower level (similarity 0.82)
- Higher-frequency auditory filters carry more intensity-difference information than the signal-centered filter (similarity 0.82)
- Frequency selectivity in normal-hearing listeners worsens at high sound levels (similarity 0.81)
- Narrowband noise masks AM detection most in listeners with the poorest cochlear gain measures. (similarity 0.81)