Influence of Tinnitus on Auditory Spectral and Temporal Resolution and Speech Perception in Tinnitus Patients

Moon, Il Joon; Won, Jong Ho; Kang, Hyeran; Kim, Dong Hyun; An, Yong-Hwi; Shim, Hyun Joon

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.5091-14.2015

Cited by 52 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…These findings suggest that tinnitus and impaired speech comprehension in noise share a common pathophysiological substrate in the central auditory pathways, a notion supported by a recent study demonstrating that ears with and without tinnitus did not differ in auditory spectral and temporal resolution abilities, but in speech comprehension in noise (Moon et al, 2015). It seems also likely that speech comprehension deficits among tinnitus patients are not solely explainable by cochlear damage, as speech comprehension deficits are also reported by patients with normal audiograms.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Speech Comprehension Difficulties in Chronic Tinnitus and Its Relation to Hyperacusis

Vielsmeier

Kreuzer

Haubner

et al. 2016

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Objective: Many tinnitus patients complain about difficulties regarding speech comprehension. In spite of the high clinical relevance little is known about underlying mechanisms and predisposing factors. Here, we performed an exploratory investigation in a large sample of tinnitus patients to (1) estimate the prevalence of speech comprehension difficulties among tinnitus patients, to (2) compare subjective reports of speech comprehension difficulties with behavioral measurements in a standardized speech comprehension test and to (3) explore underlying mechanisms by analyzing the relationship between speech comprehension difficulties and peripheral hearing function (pure tone audiogram), as well as with co-morbid hyperacusis as a central auditory processing disorder.Subjects and Methods: Speech comprehension was assessed in 361 tinnitus patients presenting between 07/2012 and 08/2014 at the Interdisciplinary Tinnitus Clinic at the University of Regensburg. The assessment included standard audiological assessments (pure tone audiometry, tinnitus pitch, and loudness matching), the Goettingen sentence test (in quiet) for speech audiometric evaluation, two questions about hyperacusis, and two questions about speech comprehension in quiet and noisy environments (“How would you rate your ability to understand speech?”; “How would you rate your ability to follow a conversation when multiple people are speaking simultaneously?”).Results: Subjectively-reported speech comprehension deficits are frequent among tinnitus patients, especially in noisy environments (cocktail party situation). 74.2% of all investigated patients showed disturbed speech comprehension (indicated by values above 21.5 dB SPL in the Goettingen sentence test). Subjective speech comprehension complaints (both for general and in noisy environment) were correlated with hearing level and with audiologically-assessed speech comprehension ability. In contrast, co-morbid hyperacusis was only correlated with speech comprehension difficulties in noisy environments, but not with speech comprehension difficulties in general.Conclusion: Speech comprehension deficits are frequent among tinnitus patients. Whereas speech comprehension deficits in quiet environments are primarily due to peripheral hearing loss, speech comprehension deficits in noisy environments are related to both peripheral hearing loss and dysfunctional central auditory processing. Disturbed speech comprehension in noisy environments might be modulated by a central inhibitory deficit. In addition, attentional and cognitive aspects may play a role.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 54%

Speech Comprehension Difficulties in Chronic Tinnitus and Its Relation to Hyperacusis

Vielsmeier

Kreuzer

Haubner

et al. 2016

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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“…No significant differences between tinnitus subjects and controls were found concerning spectral and temporal abilities. However, SRT scores were significantly worse in tinnitus subjects (Moon et al, 2015 ). It is discussed that normal temporal and spectral resolution in tinnitus subjects reflect the undisturbed functionality of OHCs in the cochlea.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decreased Speech-In-Noise Understanding in Young Adults with Tinnitus

et al. 2016

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Objectives: Young people are often exposed to high music levels which make them more at risk to develop noise-induced symptoms such as hearing loss, hyperacusis, and tinnitus of which the latter is the symptom perceived the most by young adults. Although, subclinical neural damage was demonstrated in animal experiments, the human correlate remains under debate. Controversy exists on the underlying condition of young adults with normal hearing thresholds and noise-induced tinnitus (NIT) due to leisure noise. The present study aimed to assess differences in audiological characteristics between noise-exposed adolescents with and without NIT.Methods: A group of 87 young adults with a history of recreational noise exposure was investigated by use of the following tests: otoscopy, impedance measurements, pure-tone audiometry including high-frequencies, transient and distortion product otoacoustic emissions, speech-in-noise testing with continuous and modulated noise (amplitude-modulated by 15 Hz), auditory brainstem responses (ABR) and questionnaires.Nineteen students reported NIT due to recreational noise exposure, and their measures were compared to the non-tinnitus subjects.Results: No significant differences between tinnitus and non-tinnitus subjects could be found for hearing thresholds, otoacoustic emissions, and ABR results.Tinnitus subjects had significantly worse speech reception in noise compared to non-tinnitus subjects for sentences embedded in steady-state noise (mean speech reception threshold (SRT) scores, respectively −5.77 and −6.90 dB SNR; p = 0.025) as well as for sentences embedded in 15 Hz AM-noise (mean SRT scores, respectively −13.04 and −15.17 dB SNR; p = 0.013). In both groups speech reception was significantly improved during AM-15 Hz noise compared to the steady-state noise condition (p < 0.001). However, the modulation masking release was not affected by the presence of NIT.Gilles et al. Decreased Speech Recognition in Tinnitus SubjectsConclusions: Young adults with and without NIT did not differ regarding audiometry, OAE, and ABR.However, tinnitus patients showed decreased speech-in-noise reception. The results are discussed in the light of previous findings suggestion NIT may occur in the absence of measurable peripheral damage as reflected in speech-in-noise deficits in tinnitus subjects.

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“…Subjects were instructed to identify the interval that contained the modulated noise. Modulation frequencies of 10 and 100 Hz were tested: the former represents a fairly slow rate of modulation, while the other is a relatively fast rate; these rates have been used in previous investigations of temporal modulation detection by patients with atypical hearing (Shim et al, 2014; Moon et al, 2015). A 2-down, 1-up adaptive procedure was used to measure the modulation depth threshold, starting with a modulation depth of 100% and decreasing in steps of 4 dB from the first to the fourth reversal, and 2 dB for the next 10 reversals.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Spectral and Temporal Resolution in Cochlear Implant Users Using Psychoacoustic Discrimination and Speech Cue Categorization

2016

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Objectives This study was conducted to measure auditory perception by cochlear implant users in the spectral and temporal domains, using tests of either categorization (using speech-based cues) or discrimination (using conventional psychoacoustic tests). We hypothesized that traditional nonlinguistic tests assessing spectral and temporal auditory resolution would correspond to speech-based measures assessing specific aspects of phonetic categorization assumed to depend on spectral and temporal auditory resolution. We further hypothesized that speech-based categorization performance would ultimately be a superior predictor of speech recognition performance, because of the fundamental nature of speech recognition as categorization. Design Nineteen CI listeners and 10 listeners with normal hearing (NH) participated in a suite of tasks that included spectral ripple discrimination (SRD), temporal modulation detection (TMD), and syllable categorization, which was split into a spectral-cue-based task (targeting the /ba/-/da/ contrast) and a timing-cue-based task (targeting the /b/-/p/ and /d/-/t/ contrasts). Speech sounds were manipulated in order to contain specific spectral or temporal modulations (formant transitions or voice onset time, respectively) that could be categorized. Categorization responses were quantified using logistic regression in order to assess perceptual sensitivity to acoustic phonetic cues. Word recognition testing was also conducted for CI listeners. Results CI users were generally less successful at utilizing both spectral and temporal cues for categorization compared to listeners with normal hearing. For the CI listener group, SRD was significantly correlated with the categorization of formant transitions; both were correlated with better word recognition. TMD using 100 Hz and 10 Hz modulated noise was not correlated with the CI subjects’ categorization of VOT, nor with word recognition. Word recognition was correlated more closely with categorization of the controlled speech cues than with performance on the psychophysical discrimination tasks. Conclusions When evaluating people with cochlear implants, controlled speech-based stimuli are feasible to use in tests of auditory cue categorization, to complement traditional measures of auditory discrimination. Stimuli based on specific speech cues correspond to counterpart non-linguistic measures of discrimination, but potentially show better correspondence with speech perception more generally. The ubiquity of the spectral (formant transition) and temporal (VOT) stimulus dimensions across languages highlights the potential to use this testing approach even in cases where English is not the native language.

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Influence of Tinnitus on Auditory Spectral and Temporal Resolution and Speech Perception in Tinnitus Patients

Cited by 52 publications

References 38 publications

Speech Comprehension Difficulties in Chronic Tinnitus and Its Relation to Hyperacusis

Speech Comprehension Difficulties in Chronic Tinnitus and Its Relation to Hyperacusis

Decreased Speech-In-Noise Understanding in Young Adults with Tinnitus

Assessment of Spectral and Temporal Resolution in Cochlear Implant Users Using Psychoacoustic Discrimination and Speech Cue Categorization

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