Wider peripheral tuning from hearing loss suppresses low-frequency fluctuation amplitude

Evidence

In contrast, it was found that CI users showed no difference in speech intelligibility between maskers with and without inherent envelope fluctuations. Here, these initial findings in CI users were extended to listeners with cochlear hearing loss and the results were compared with those from normal-hearing listeners at either equal sensation level or equal sound pressure level. The results from hearing-impaired listeners (and in normal-hearing listeners at high sound levels) are consistent with a relative reduction in low-frequency inherent noise fluctuations due to broader cochlear filtering. The reduced effect of inherent temporal fluctuations in noise, due to either current spread (in CI users) or broader cochlear filters (in hearing-impaired listeners), provides a new way to explain the loss of masking release experienced in CI users and hearing-impaired listeners when additional amplitude fluctuations are introduced in noise maskers. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2161 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

A number of studies have evaluated the effects of masking in listeners with hearing loss, with a general consensus being that listeners with hearing loss experience poorer frequency selectivity and a greater susceptibility to masking than their normal-hearing counterparts (e.g., Florentine, Buus, Scharf, & Zwicker, 1980; Leek & Summers, 1993). The high stimulus levels used may be part of the reason for poor frequency selectivity in listeners with hearing loss, due to the worsening of frequency selectivity with increasing level. However, even when stimuli are equated between the two groups of listeners and threshold elevation is taken into account, listeners with hearing loss appear to experience an additional reduction in frequency selectivity due to their auditory pathology (Dubno & Schaefer, 1995). — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 558 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Frequency-modulated tones lose fluctuation strength above 1 kHz centre frequency; Conductive hearing loss shifts tuning curves upward without degrading frequency resolution. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1884; Hearing-impaired listeners retain partial sensitivity to inherent noise fluctuations, unlike CI users — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2200 (+9 more)

Related

• Reduced frequency selectivity partly explains diminished sensitivity to inherent masker fluctuations (similarity 0.94)
• Hearing-impaired listeners retain partial sensitivity to inherent noise fluctuations, unlike CI users (similarity 0.92)
• Broader cochlear filtering reduces low-frequency noise fluctuations, explaining lost masking release (similarity 0.92)
• Frequency-specific hearing loss drives multi-band hearing aid processing (similarity 0.91)
• Cochlear-implant users show no sensitivity to inherent noise envelope fluctuations (similarity 0.90)
• Variable-frequency experiments reveal frequency effects that fixed-frequency masking hides. (similarity 0.88)
• The speech-masking potency of inherent noise fluctuations depends on listener frequency selectivity and level (similarity 0.88)
• Hearing loss impairs frequency selectivity beyond what stimulus level differences explain. (similarity 0.88)
• Impaired frequency selectivity, suppression, and fluctuation use jointly degrade hearing (similarity 0.87)
• Cochlear frequency selectivity decreases as sound level increases (similarity 0.86)
• Frequency selectivity in normal-hearing listeners worsens at high sound levels (similarity 0.86)
• Hearing loss reduces the effect of inherent noise fluctuations on speech masking. (similarity 0.85)
• Reducing audible fluctuations in a masker lowers post-masked thresholds by up to 24 dB (similarity 0.85)
• Inherent noise fluctuations do not universally limit speech perception across hearing conditions (similarity 0.85)
• Hearing-impaired listeners benefit less from masker fluctuation when spectral resolution is degraded (similarity 0.85)

Broader Connections

• Broader cochlear filtering reduces low-frequency noise fluctuations, explaining lost masking release #corroborates (0.92) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2161
• Hearing loss impairs frequency selectivity beyond what stimulus level differences explain. #qualifies (0.72) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 558