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Spectral Dynamics and Speech Understanding by Hearing Impaired People

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ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01867515
Recruitment Status : Completed
First Posted : June 4, 2013
Last Update Posted : November 22, 2016
Sponsor:
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
VA Office of Research and Development

Study Description
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Brief Summary:
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 or disease
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural

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.

Study Design
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Study Type : Observational
Estimated Enrollment : 120 participants
Observational Model: Case Control
Time Perspective: Prospective
Official Title: Spectral Dynamics and Speech Understanding by Hearing Impaired People
Study Start Date : August 2013
Actual Primary Completion Date : September 2016
Actual Study Completion Date : September 2016

Resource links provided by the National Library of Medicine

U.S. FDA Resources

Groups and Cohorts
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Group/Cohort
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


Outcome Measures
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Primary Outcome Measures :
  1. 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 :
  1. 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

Eligibility Criteria
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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
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Study Description Study Design Groups and Cohorts Outcome Measures Eligibility Criteria Contacts and Locations More Information

Information from the National Library of Medicine

To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): 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
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Study Description Study Design Groups and Cohorts Outcome Measures Eligibility Criteria Contacts and Locations 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 )
First Posted: June 4, 2013    Key Record Dates
Last Update Posted: November 22, 2016
Last Verified: November 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