Spectral Dynamics and Speech Understanding by Hearing Impaired People - Full Text View

Purpose

The purpose of this program of research is to understand the perception of the dynamic spectral properties of speech by hearing-impaired listeners, with the long-term goal of improving speech understanding by these individuals in adverse listening conditions. The proposed research compares the performance of normally-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners on measures of speech understanding in the presence of different types of signal distortion and speech understanding of signals with enhanced spectral dynamics. A computational model based on the amount of potential information available in speech will be used to quantify differences in speech intelligibility due to hearing status and stimulus characteristics.

Condition
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural


Study Type:	Observational
Study Design:	Observational Model: Case Control Time Perspective: Prospective
Official Title:	Spectral Dynamics and Speech Understanding by Hearing Impaired People

Resource links provided by NLM:

Genetics Home Reference related topics: nonsyndromic hearing loss

MedlinePlus related topics: Hearing Disorders and Deafness

U.S. FDA Resources

Further study details as provided by VA Office of Research and Development:

Primary Outcome Measures:

Perception of spectral change in speech [ Time Frame: Three years ]
The experimental approach compares speech identification performance among normal hearing listeners, hearing-impaired listeners, and normal hearing listeners with simulated hearing impairment. Tasks will be carried out in quiet and in the presence of 2 levels of continuous, speech-shaped background noise. Experimental metrics will be percentage of correct/incorrect speech identification and patterns of response confusions. Error rates and error patterns will be compared among the three listener groups. Performance will also be interpreted relative to the output of a computational model.

Secondary Outcome Measures:

Speech understanding of signals with targeted spectral change enhancement [ Time Frame: Three years ]
The experimental approach compares speech identification performance among normal hearing listeners, hearing-impaired listeners, and normal hearing listeners with simulated hearing impairment for stimuli that have been enhanced in the frequency region of the second formant. Tasks will be carried out in quiet and in the presence of two levels of continuous, speech-shaped background noise. Experimental metrics will be percentage of correct/incorrect speech identification and patterns of response confusions.

Biospecimen Retention: None Retained

None collected


Estimated Enrollment:	120
Study Start Date:	August 2013
Study Completion Date:	September 2016
Primary Completion Date:	September 2016 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)

Groups/Cohorts
Normally-hearing listeners Participants with auditory thresholds within the normal limits. individuals with hearing thresholds of 20 dB HL or better at all octave frequencies between 250 Hz and 4000 Hz
Hearing-impaired listeners individuals with bilateral sensorineural hearing losses with thresholds between 25 and 70 dB HL and no losses greater than 70 dB HL at frequencies of 4000 Hz or below

Detailed Description:

This is a behavioral study of human auditory perception. Each experiment in this study involves prospective data collection from three types of listeners. The experimental listeners will be people with sensorineural hearing loss and the control listeners will either be subjects with normal hearing or normal-hearing listeners for whom hearing loss will be simulated through the use of a spectrally-shaped broadband noise. The tasks of the subjects in this study involve either listening to synthesized sounds over earphones while seated comfortably in a sound-treated booth, and making responses indicating the subject's auditory perception of these sounds by touching specific areas on a touch-screen terminal; or, listening to recorded, acoustically modified syllables, words, or sentences over earphones and making responses indicating the subject's identification.

Eligibility


Ages Eligible for Study:	18 Years to 65 Years (Adult)
Sexes Eligible for Study:	All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:	Yes
Sampling Method:	Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

community sample

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

individuals with hearing thresholds of 20 dB HL or better at all octave frequencies between 250 Hz and 4000 Hz
or, individuals with bilateral sensorineural hearing losses with thresholds between 25 and 70 dB HL and no losses greater than 70 dB HL at frequencies of 4000 Hz or below

Exclusion Criteria:

a conductive hearing impairment or other otological pathology
hearing thresholds greater than 70 dB HL at any frequencies of 4000 Hz or below or pure-tone averages (averaged across 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz) of greater than 65 dB HL
bilateral differences greater than 20 dB at any frequency below 4000 Hz
an inability to complete the experimental tasks

Contacts and Locations

Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below. For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01867515

Locations


United States, Oregon
VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR
Portland, Oregon, United States, 97239

Sponsors and Collaborators

VA Office of Research and Development

Investigators


Principal Investigator:	Michelle R Molis, PhD	VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR

More Information


Responsible Party:	VA Office of Research and Development
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:	NCT01867515 History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers:	C1020-R 5I01RX001020-03 ( U.S. NIH Grant/Contract )
Study First Received:	May 20, 2013
Last Updated:	November 21, 2016
Individual Participant Data (IPD) Sharing Statement:
Plan to Share IPD:	Undecided

Keywords provided by VA Office of Research and Development:


Hearing Hearing Loss, sensorineural Speech Perception

Additional relevant MeSH terms:


Hearing Loss Deafness Hearing Loss, Sensorineural Hearing Disorders Ear Diseases	Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases Sensation Disorders Neurologic Manifestations Nervous System Diseases Signs and Symptoms

ClinicalTrials.gov processed this record on September 20, 2017