Relationships among Speech Perception, Self-Rated Tinnitus Loudness and Disability in Tinnitus Patients with Normal Pure-Tone Thresholds of Hearing

Huang, Chii Yuan; Lee, Heng Huei; Chung, Kao‐Chi; Chen, Hsiao Chuan; Shen, Yung Ji; Wu, Jiunn-Lin

doi:10.1159/000096713

Cited by 40 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Previous studies showed that speech discrimination was mostly affected in TP in noisy environment which was not the case in the present study (Spitzer et al, 1983;Huang et al, 2007;Ryu et al, 2012). In addition, the two French words "gauche" (left) and "droite" (right) that were used in the word recognition condition sounded clearly differently, which should have facilitated their discrimination.…”

Section: Slowed Down Processing Speed In Tinnituscontrasting

confidence: 44%

Altered top-down cognitive control and auditory processing in tinnitus: evidences from auditory and visual spatial stroop

Araneda

Volder

Deggouj

et al. 2015

Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience

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Purpose: Tinnitus is the perception of a sound in the absence of external stimulus. Currently, the pathophysiology of tinnitus is not fully understood, but recent studies indicate that alterations in the brain involve non-auditory areas, including the prefrontal cortex. Here, we hypothesize that these brain alterations affect top-down cognitive control mechanisms that play a role in the regulation of sensations, emotions and attention resources. Methods: The efficiency of the executive control as well as simple reaction speed and processing speed were evaluated in tinnitus participants (TP) and matched control subjects (CS) in both the auditory and the visual modalities using a spatial Stroop paradigm. Results: TP were slower and less accurate than CS during both the auditory and the visual spatial Stroop tasks, while simple reaction speed and stimulus processing speed were affected in TP in the auditory modality only. Conclusions: Tinnitus is associated both with modality-specific deficits along the auditory processing system and an impairment of cognitive control mechanisms that are involved both in vision and audition (i.e. that are supra-modal). We postulate that this deficit in the top-down cognitive control is a key-factor in the development and maintenance of tinnitus and may also explain some of the cognitive difficulties reported by tinnitus sufferers.

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Section: Slowed Down Processing Speed In Tinnituscontrasting

confidence: 44%

Altered top-down cognitive control and auditory processing in tinnitus: evidences from auditory and visual spatial stroop

Araneda

Volder

Deggouj

et al. 2015

Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience

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“…Similar to Newman et al (1994), Goldstein and Shulman stressed the contribution of central processes to the generation of chronic tinnitus. Huang et al (2007) investigated speech perception in 20 chronic tinnitus patients speaking Mandarin. Compared to controls, tinnitus patients displayed generally lower scores in perceiving sentences in noise and, as it appears (though it was not analyzed), this was more so when sentences were hard to predict, i.e., with low contextual cues.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impairments of Speech Comprehension in Patients with Tinnitus—A Review

Ivanšić

Guntinas‐Lichius

Müller

et al. 2017

Front. Aging Neurosci.

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Tinnitus describes the subjective perception of a sound despite the absence of external stimulation. Being a sensory symptom the majority of studies focusses on the auditory pathway. In the recent years, a series of studies suggested a crucial involvement of the limbic system in the manifestation and development of chronic tinnitus. Regarding cognitive symptoms, several reviews addressed the presence of cognitive impairments in tinnitus as well and concluded that attention and memory processes are affected. Despite the importance for social communication and the reliance on a highly functional auditory system, speech comprehension remains a largely neglected field in tinnitus research. This is why we review here the existing literature on speech and language functions in tinnitus patients. Reviewed studies suggest that speech comprehension is impaired in patients with tinnitus, especially in the presence of competing noise. This is even the case in tinnitus patients with normal hearing thresholds. Additionally, speech comprehension measures seem independent of other measures such as tinnitus severity and perceived tinnitus loudness. According to the majority of authors, the speech comprehension difficulties arise as a result of central processes or dysfunctional neuroplasticity.

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“…We are aware that there may be a selection bias as the sample comes from a tertiary referral clinic. However, our sample is much larger than previously investigated samples (Huang et al, 2007) and consisted of unselected patients who consecutively presented because of tinnitus in our clinic. Moreover, there are similar reports of high prevalence of speech intelligibility deficits in workers with exposure to noise and tinnitus (Soalheiro et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The investigation of a large sample of 495 workers who suffered from tinnitus showed speech intelligibility deficits as compared to workers without tinnitus (Soalheiro et al, 2012). A small study investigating 20 Chinese speaking patients with tinnitus revealed that speech comprehension was impaired as compared to a control group, particularly in noisy environments (Huang et al, 2007). Another study revealed that masking of tinnitus by sound improved speech comprehension (Ryu et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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Relationships among Speech Perception, Self-Rated Tinnitus Loudness and Disability in Tinnitus Patients with Normal Pure-Tone Thresholds of Hearing

Cited by 40 publications

References 29 publications

Altered top-down cognitive control and auditory processing in tinnitus: evidences from auditory and visual spatial stroop

Altered top-down cognitive control and auditory processing in tinnitus: evidences from auditory and visual spatial stroop

Impairments of Speech Comprehension in Patients with Tinnitus—A Review

Speech Comprehension Difficulties in Chronic Tinnitus and Its Relation to Hyperacusis

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