The Effect of Dynamic Pitch on Speech Recognition in Temporally Modulated Noise

2017

Am J Audiol

Self Cite

Purpose Dynamic pitch, the variation in the fundamental frequency of speech, aids older listeners' speech perception in noise. It is unclear, however, whether some older listeners with hearing loss benefit from strengthened dynamic pitch cues for recognizing speech in certain noise scenarios and how this relative benefit may be associated with individual factors. We first examined older individuals' relative benefit between natural and strong dynamic pitches for better speech recognition in noise. Further, we reported the individual factors of the 2 groups of listeners who benefit differently from natural and strong dynamic pitches. Method Speech reception thresholds of 13 older listeners with mild–moderate hearing loss were measured using target speech with 3 levels of dynamic pitch strength. Individuals' ability to benefit from dynamic pitch was defined as the speech reception threshold difference between speeches with and without dynamic pitch cues. Results The relative benefit of natural versus strong dynamic pitch varied across individuals. However, this relative benefit remained consistent for the same individuals across those background noises with temporal modulation. Those listeners who benefited more from strong dynamic pitch reported better subjective speech perception abilities. Conclusion Strong dynamic pitch may be more beneficial than natural dynamic pitch for some older listeners to recognize speech better in noise, particularly when the noise has temporal modulation.

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confidence: 69%

“…As described by our earlier article (Shen & Souza, 2017), older listeners as a group perceive speech better with natural dynamic pitch than with strong dynamic pitch. The individual variability, however, was substantial in this data set.…”

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confidence: 79%

Do Older Listeners With Hearing Loss Benefit From Dynamic Pitch for Speech Recognition in Noise?

Shen

2017

Am J Audiol

Self Cite

“…89 Hearing loss is known to impair this ability, albeit with individual variability. 90,91 It is likely that the listeners presented in Fig. 4, many of who have very poor frequency selectivity, have greater difficulty in this regard.…”

Section: Speech Recognition In Listeners With Severe Hearing Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Physiologic and Psychophysical Consequences of Severe-to-Profound Hearing Loss

Hoover

2018

Semin Hear

Substantial loss of cochlear function is required to elevate pure-tone thresholds to the severe hearing loss range; yet, individuals with severe or profound hearing loss continue to rely on hearing for communication. Despite the impairment, sufficient information is encoded at the periphery to make acoustic hearing a viable option. However, the probability of significant cochlear and/or neural damage associated with the loss has consequences for sound perception and speech recognition. These consequences include degraded frequency selectivity, which can be assessed with tests including psychoacoustic tuning curves and broadband rippled stimuli. Because speech recognition depends on the ability to resolve frequency detail, a listener with severe hearing loss is likely to have impaired communication in both quiet and noisy environments. However, the extent of the impairment varies widely among individuals. A better understanding of the fundamental abilities of listeners with severe and profound hearing loss and the consequences of those abilities for communication can support directed treatment options in this population.

“…This dynamic aspect of pitch carries prosodic information that facilitates speech recognition (Cutler, 1976 ; Steinhauer et al, 1999 ; Brown et al, 2011 ) and conveys emotion in speech (Fairbanks, 1940 ; Frick, 1985 ). Previous research has demonstrated that dynamic pitch cues aid speech perception in background noise (Laures and Bunton, 2003 ; Binns and Culling, 2007 ; Miller et al, 2010 ; Shen and Souza, 2017a ). The data from these studies has consistently showed speech with natural dynamic pitch cues is better perceived than monotonous speech, when embedded in background noise.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While these effects have been demonstrated in a variety of noises, there is a tendency for dynamic pitch to be more helpful in speech maskers than non-speech noises (Laures and Bunton, 2003 ; Binns and Culling, 2007 ). This advantage from the speech maskers can at least be partially attributed to the temporal modulation of noise (Shen and Souza, 2017a ). Following these findings, it was of interest to determine whether any additional features of the speech masker (i.e., intelligibility and availability of pitch cues) affects dynamic pitch benefit.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Dynamic Pitch Benefit for Speech Recognition in Speech Masker

Shen

2018

Front. Psychol.

Self Cite

Previous work demonstrated that dynamic pitch (i.e., pitch variation in speech) aids speech recognition in various types of noises. While this finding suggests dynamic pitch enhancement in target speech can benefit speech recognition in noise, it is of importance to know what noise characteristics affect dynamic pitch benefit, and who will benefit from enhanced dynamic pitch cues. Following our recent finding that temporal modulation in noise influences dynamic pitch benefit, we examined the effect of speech masker characteristics on dynamic pitch benefit. Specifically, the first goal of the study was to test the hypothesis that dynamic pitch benefit varies depending on the availability of pitch cues in the masker and the intelligibility of masker. The second goal of this study was to investigate whether older listeners as a group can benefit from dynamic pitch for speech recognition in speech maskers. In addition, individual factors of hearing loss and working memory capacity were examined for their impact on older listeners' dynamic pitch benefit. Twenty-three younger listeners with normal hearing and 37 older listeners with varying levels of hearing sensitivity participated the study, in which speech reception thresholds were measured with sentences in speech maskers. While we did not find an effect of masker characteristics on dynamic pitch benefit, the results showed older listeners can benefit from dynamic pitch for recognizing speech in speech maskers. The data also suggest that among those older listeners with hearing loss, dynamic pitch benefit is stronger for individuals with higher working memory capacity. This can be attributed to their ability to exploit facilitated lexical access in processing of degraded speech signal.