The influence of informational masking on speech perception and pupil response in adults with hearing impairment

Abstract

A recent pupillometry study on adults with normal hearing indicates that the pupil response during speech perception (cognitive processing load) is strongly affected by the type of speech masker. The current study extends these results by recording the pupil response in 32 participants with hearing impairment (mean age 59 yr) while they were listening to sentences masked by fluctuating noise or a single-talker. Efforts were made to improve audibility of all sounds by means of spectral shaping. Additionally, participants performed tests measuring verbal working memory capacity, inhibition of interfering information in working memory, and linguistic closure. The results showed worse speech reception thresholds for speech masked by single-talker speech compared to fluctuating noise. In line with previous results for participants with normal hearing, the pupil response was larger when listening to speech masked by a single-talker compared to fluctuating noise. Regression analysis revealed that larger working memory capacity and better inhibition of interfering information related to better speech reception thresholds, but these variables did not account for inter-individual differences in the pupil response. In conclusion, people with hearing impairment show more cognitive load during speech processing when there is interfering speech compared to fluctuating noise.

Relations Between Self-Reported Daily-Life Fatigue, Hearing Status, and Pupil Dilation During a Speech Perception in Noise Task

“…Therefore, it is 4 important to understand the relationships between fatigue, listening effort, and hearing impairment, 5 by examining the evidence from both subjective and objective measurements. The aim of the 6 present study was to investigate these relationships by assessing subjectively measured daily-life 7 fatigue (self-report questionnaires) and objectively measured listening effort (pupillometry) in both 8 normally-hearing and hearing-impaired participants. Design: twenty-seven normally-hearing and 19 age-matched participants with hearing impairment 10 were included in this study.…”

Speech masking speech in everyday communication: The role of inhibitory control and working memory capacity

“…It has previously been discussed that energetic maskers overlap target speech with the acoustical properties, thereby reducing the intelligibility, while informational maskers engage more central processes, demanding more cognitive resources, such as WMC and inhibitory control. This is reflected in studies three and four, supporting the notion that informational maskers are more cognitively demanding than energetic maskers (Brungart et al, 2013;Koelewijn et al, 2014). In studies three and four it was shown that individuals with high WMC rated effort as less than individuals with lower WMC.…”

“…Listening effort has previously been investigated using various methods (see for example Koelewijn et al, 2015;Larsby et al, 2005;Zekveld et al, 2014)., e.g. pupillometry, which is used to quantify cognitive processing load by measuring pupil dilation in relation to task demands and cognitive load (Koelewijn et al, 2015;Zekveld et al, 2014).…”

“…pupillometry, which is used to quantify cognitive processing load by measuring pupil dilation in relation to task demands and cognitive load (Koelewijn et al, 2015;Zekveld et al, 2014).…”

Neural and Cognitive Effects of Hearing Loss on Speech Processing

“…Specifically regarding the RS test, it has been argued that the performance score only partly reflects attention control, activated during the retrieval of the to-be-remembered target words, but not during the visual presentation of the sentences (Cowan et al, 2005). This suggests that the RS score does not capture the entirety of the WM capacity which could result in inconsistent observations in the relationship between RS score and speech recognition (Paper I; Zekveld et al 2014;Neher et al 2011;Neher et al 2014;Koelewijn et al 2014).…”