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Demarcating and highlighting in Papuan Malay phrase prosody

Kaland C, Baumann S

J Acoust Soc Am, 2020 04;147(4):2974.
PMID: 32359299 DOI: 10.1121/10.0001008

Phrase-level prosody serves two essential functions in many languages of the world: chunking information into units (demarcating) and marking important information (highlighting). Recent work suggests that prosody has a mainly demarcating function in the Trade Malay language family. That is, the use of pitch accents in these languages is limited or absent, as the main prosodic events occur on the final two syllables in a phrase. The current study investigates the extent to which Papuan Malay phrase prosody is used for demarcating and highlighting, taking into account the potential influence of word stress. This is done by means of acoustic analyses on a corpus of spontaneous speech. Both the form (F0 movement) and the possible functions (demarcating and highlighting) of the final two syllables in Papuan Malay phrases are investigated. Although most results favor the demarcating function of Papuan Malay phrase prosody, a highlighting function cannot be ruled out. The results suggest that Papuan Malay might hold an exceptional position in the typology of prosodic prominence.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
Optimising hearing aid output to paediatric prescriptive targets improves outcomes in children

Amri NA, Quar TK, Chong FY, Bagatto M

Int J Audiol, 2022 11;61(11):924-931.
PMID: 34859745 DOI: 10.1080/14992027.2021.2005832

OBJECTIVE: This study examined the accuracy of hearing aid output to DSL v5.0 Child targets in a group of children who wear hearing aids, and the impact on their auditory outcomes.
DESIGN: For each participant, the output of the initial hearing aid fitting was compared to DSL v5.0 Child prescriptive targets and again after the fitting was adjusted using coupler-based verification and RECD measures. Outcomes for initial and adjusted fittings were examined using the Speech Intelligibility Index (SII), Parent's Evaluation of Aural/Oral Performance of Children (PEACH) rating scale, and speech perception tests in quiet and noise.
STUDY SAMPLE: Sixty-eight children aged 3 months to 17 years with moderate to profound hearing loss participated in the study.
RESULTS: Fit-to-targets improved significantly after hearing aids were adjusted to match targets to within 5 dB RMSE. Adjusted hearing aids provided increased aided audibility compared to initial fittings and resulted in improved speech perception scores and parent-reported hearing performance. Fifty percent of the children aged 6 to 17 years preferred their adjusted fitting compared to 10% who preferred their initial fitting.
CONCLUSIONS: Improvement in fit-to-target to a validated paediatric prescriptive formula using best practice procedures can result in improved auditory outcomes and possible self-reported satisfaction.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
Fulltext Systematic review of outcome domains and instruments used in designs of clinical trials for interventions that seek to restore bilateral and binaural hearing in adults with unilateral severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss ('single-sided deafness')

Katiri R, Hall DA, Killan CF, Smith S, Prayuenyong P, Kitterick PT

Trials, 2021 Mar 20;22(1):220.
PMID: 33743802 DOI: 10.1186/s13063-021-05160-5

BACKGROUND: This systematic review aimed to identify, compare and contrast outcome domains and outcome instruments reported in studies investigating interventions that seek to restore bilateral (two-sided) and/or binaural (both ears) hearing in adults with single-sided deafness (SSD). Findings can inform the development of evidence-based guidance to facilitate design decisions for confirmatory trials.
METHODS: Records were identified by searching MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, CINAHL, ClinicalTrials.gov, ISRCTN, CENTRAL, WHO ICTRP and the NIHR UK clinical trials gateway. The search included records published from 1946 to March 2020. Included studies were those as follows: (a) recruiting adults aged 18 years or older diagnosed with SSD of average threshold severity worse than 70 dB HL in the worse-hearing ear and normal (or near-normal) hearing in the better-hearing ear, (b) evaluating interventions to restore bilateral and/or binaural hearing and (c) enrolling those adults in a controlled trial, before-and-after study or cross-over study. Studies that fell just short of the participant eligibility criteria were included in a separate sensitivity analysis.
RESULTS: Ninety-six studies were included (72 full inclusion, 24 sensitivity analysis). For fully included studies, 37 exclusively evaluated interventions to re-establish bilateral hearing and 29 exclusively evaluated interventions to restore binaural hearing. Overall, 520 outcome domains were identified (350 primary and 170 secondary). Speech-related outcome domains were the most common (74% of studies), followed by spatial-related domains (60% of studies). A total of 344 unique outcome instruments were reported. Speech-related outcome domains were measured by 73 different instruments and spatial-related domains by 43 different instruments. There was considerable variability in duration of follow-up, ranging from acute (baseline) testing to 10 years after the intervention. The sensitivity analysis identified no additional outcome domains.
CONCLUSIONS: This review identified large variability in the reporting of outcome domains and instruments in studies evaluating the therapeutic benefits and harms of SSD interventions. Reports frequently omitted information on what domains the study intended to assess, and on what instruments were used to measure which domains.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: The systematic review protocol is registered on PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews): Registration Number CRD42018084274 . Registered on 13 March 2018, last revised on 7th of May 2019.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
The development of tone discrimination in infancy: Evidence from a cross-linguistic, multi-lab report

Kalashnikova M, Singh L, Tsui A, Altuntas E, Burnham D, Cannistraci R, et al.

Dev Sci, 2024 May;27(3):e13459.
PMID: 37987377 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13459

We report the findings of a multi-language and multi-lab investigation of young infants' ability to discriminate lexical tones as a function of their native language, age and language experience, as well as of tone properties. Given the high prevalence of lexical tones across human languages, understanding lexical tone acquisition is fundamental for comprehensive theories of language learning. While there are some similarities between the developmental course of lexical tone perception and that of vowels and consonants, findings for lexical tones tend to vary greatly across different laboratories. To reconcile these differences and to assess the developmental trajectory of native and non-native perception of tone contrasts, this study employed a single experimental paradigm with the same two pairs of Cantonese tone contrasts (perceptually similar vs. distinct) across 13 laboratories in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North-America testing 5-, 10- and 17-month-old monolingual (tone, pitch-accent, non-tone) and bilingual (tone/non-tone, non-tone/non-tone) infants. Across the age range and language backgrounds, infants who were not exposed to Cantonese showed robust discrimination of the two non-native lexical tone contrasts. Contrary to this overall finding, the statistical model assessing native discrimination by Cantonese-learning infants failed to yield significant effects. These findings indicate that lexical tone sensitivity is maintained from 5 to 17 months in infants acquiring tone and non-tone languages, challenging the generalisability of the existing theoretical accounts of perceptual narrowing in the first months of life. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: This is a multi-language and multi-lab investigation of young infants' ability to discriminate lexical tones. This study included data from 13 laboratories testing 5-, 10-, and 17-month-old monolingual (tone, pitch-accent, non-tone) and bilingual (tone/non-tone, non-tone/non-tone) infants. Overall, infants discriminated a perceptually similar and a distinct non-native tone contrast, although there was no evidence of a native tone-language advantage in discrimination. These results demonstrate maintenance of tone discrimination throughout development.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
Hypernasality in singing among children with cleft palate: a preliminary study

Peter S, Abdul Rahman ZA, Pillai S

Int J Oral Maxillofac Surg, 2019 Oct;48(10):1317-1322.
PMID: 31014926 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijom.2019.03.896

The aim of this study was to document differences in hypernasality during speaking and singing among children with cleft palate and to compare nasality score ratings of trained and untrained listeners. Twenty subjects with cleft palate aged between 7 and 12 years participated in this study. Audio recordings were made of the children reading a passage and singing a common local song, both in the Malay language. The degree of hypernasality was judged through perceptual assessment. Three trained listeners (a speech therapist, a classical singer, and a linguistic expert - all academicians) and two untrained listeners (a cleft volunteer worker and a national high school teacher) assessed the recordings using a visual analogue scale (VAS). Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability for hypernasality in both speaking and singing were verified using the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC). A significant reduction in hypernasality was observed during singing as compared to speaking, indicating that hypernasality reduces when a child with cleft palate sings. The act of singing significantly reduces hypernasality. The outcome of this study suggests that children with cleft palate would benefit from singing exercises to ultimately reduce hypernasality. However, future research is needed to objectively measure nasality in singing compared to speaking.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
Long-term maintenance costs incurred by the families of pediatric cochlear implant recipients in Malaysia

Misron K, Tengku Kamalden TMI, Misron LH, Devesahayam PR, Misron SNF

Cochlear Implants Int, 2021 09;22(5):291-295.
PMID: 33794747 DOI: 10.1080/14670100.2021.1905975

INTRODUCTION: Cochlear implant (CI) requires lifelong financial commitments to ensure that the devices always operate optimally.
OBJECTIVE: We estimated the long-term maintenance costs of CI including repair of speech processors, replacement of damaged parts, and battery requirements.
RESULTS: Forty-one parents of children who received CIs in Malaysian government hospitals were enrolled. The first 2 years of CI usage were covered by warranty. The cost increased three-fold from by 4 years of CI usage and then doubled by 8 years of usage. About 75% of parents commented that the costs were burdensome.
CONCLUSION: Our findings will be useful for parents whose children receive CI and will allow medical personnel to counsel the parents about the costs.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
Fulltext The role of f0 shape and phrasal position in Papuan Malay and American English word identification

Kaland C, Gordon MK

Phonetica, 2022 Jun 27;79(3):219-245.
PMID: 35981718 DOI: 10.1515/phon-2022-2022

The prosodic structure of under-researched languages in the Trade Malay language family is poorly understood. Although boundary marking has been uncontroversially shown as the major prosodic function in these languages, studies on the use of pitch accents to highlight important words in a phrase remain inconclusive. In addition, most knowledge of pitch accents is based on well-researched languages such as the ones from the Western-Germanic language family. This paper reports two word identification experiments comparing Papuan Malay with the pitch accent language American English, in order to investigate the extent to which the demarcating and highlighting function of prosody can be disentangled. To this end, target words were presented to native listeners of both languages and differed with respect to their position in the phrase (medial or final) and the shape of their f0 movement (original or manipulated). Reaction times for the target word identifications revealed overall faster responses for original and final words compared to manipulated and medial ones. The results add to previous findings on the facilitating effect of pitch accents and further improve our prosodic knowledge of underresearched languages.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
Fulltext Auditory functionality and early use of speech in a group of pediatric cochlear implant users

Umat C, Siti Hufaidah K, Azlizawati AR

Med J Malaysia, 2010 Mar;65(1):7-13.
PMID: 21265239 MyJurnal

This study examined auditory functionality and early use of speech in a group of paediatric cochlear implant users. Parents of 33 implanted children from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Cochlear Implant Program were interviewed using the Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) and the Meaningful Use of Speech Scale (MUSS). In general, higher MAIS scores post-implantation were significantly associated with higher MUSS scores suggesting that those with better functional hearing with the implant were also better in using spontaneous speech to communicate. Multiple regression analyses showed that several time factors significantly correlated with the MAIS scores post-implantation but not with the MUSS.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception/physiology*
The Malay hearing in noise test

Quar TK, Mukari SZ, Abdul Wahab NA, Abdul Razak R, Omar M, Maamor N

Int J Audiol, 2008 Jun;47(6):379-80.
PMID: 18569117 DOI: 10.1080/14992020801886796
Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
Fulltext Acoustic change complex in background noise: phoneme level and timing effects

Billings CJ, Grush LD, Maamor N

Physiol Rep, 2017 Nov;5(20).
PMID: 29051305 DOI: 10.14814/phy2.13464

The effects of background noise on speech-evoked cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) can provide insight into the physiology of the auditory system. The purpose of this study was to determine background noise effects on neural coding of different phonemes within a syllable. CAEPs were recorded from 15 young normal-hearing adults in response to speech signals /s/, /ɑ/, and /sɑ/. Signals were presented at varying signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). The effects of SNR and context (in isolation or within syllable) were analyzed for both phonemes. For all three stimuli, latencies generally decreased and amplitudes generally increased as SNR improved, and context effects were not present; however, the amplitude of the /ɑ/ response was the exception, showing no SNR effect and a significant context effect. Differential coding of /s/ and /ɑ/ likely result from level and timing differences. Neural refractoriness may result in the lack of a robust SNR effect on amplitude in the syllable context. The stable amplitude across SNRs in response to the vowel in /sɑ/ suggests the combined effects of (1) acoustic characteristics of the syllable and noise at poor SNRs and (2) refractory effects resulting from phoneme timing at good SNRs. Results provide insights into the coding of multiple-onset speech syllables in varying levels of background noise and, together with behavioral measures, may help to improve our understanding of speech-perception-in-noise difficulties.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
Fulltext Auditory Performance in Early Implanted Children with Cochleovestibular Malformation and Cochlear Nerve Deficiency

Othman IA, Abdullah A, See GB, Umat C, Tyler RS

J Int Adv Otol, 2020 Dec;16(3):297-302.
PMID: 33136006 DOI: 10.5152/iao.2020.8563

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to report the auditory performance in children with cochleovestibular malformation (CVM)/cochlear nerve deficiency (CND) who were implanted early at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, using Categorical Auditory Performance (CAP)-II score and Speech Intelligibility Rating (SIR) scales, and to compare the outcome of their matched counterparts.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 14 children with CVM/CND with unilateral cochlear implant (CI) implanted before the age of 4 years old were matched and compared with 14 children with normal inner ear structures. Their improvement in auditory performance was evaluated twice using CAP-II score and SIR scales at 6-month intervals, with the baseline evaluation done at least 6 months after implantation.
RESULTS: The average age of implantation was 31±8 and 33±7 months for the control group and the case (CVM/CND) group, respectively. Overall, there were no significant differences in outcome when comparing the entire cohort of case subjects and their matched control subjects in this study. However, the improvement in CAP-II scores and SIR scales among the case subjects in between the first and second evaluations was statistically significant (p=0.040 and p=0.034, respectively). With longer duration of CI usage, children with CVM/CND showed significant speech perception outcome evident by their SIR scales (p=0.011).
CONCLUSION: Children with radiographically malformed inner ear structures who were implanted before the age of 4 years have comparable performance to their matched counterparts, evident by their similar improvement of CAP-II scores and SIR scales over time. Hence, this group of children benefited from cochlear implantation.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception*
Fulltext High variability phonetic training in adaptive adverse conditions is rapid, effective, and sustained

Leong CXR, Price JM, Pitchford NJ, van Heuven WJB

PLoS One, 2018;13(10):e0204888.
PMID: 30300372 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204888

This paper evaluates a novel high variability phonetic training paradigm that involves presenting spoken words in adverse conditions. The effectiveness, generalizability, and longevity of this high variability phonetic training in adverse conditions was evaluated using English phoneme contrasts in three experiments with Malaysian multilinguals. Adverse conditions were created by presenting spoken words against background multi-talker babble. In Experiment 1, the adverse condition level was set at a fixed level throughout the training and in Experiment 2 the adverse condition level was determined for each participant before training using an adaptive staircase procedure. To explore the effectiveness and sustainability of the training, phonemic discrimination ability was assessed before and immediately after training (Experiments 1 and 2) and 6 months after training (Experiment 3). Generalization of training was evaluated within and across phonemic contrasts using trained and untrained stimuli. Results revealed significant perceptual improvements after just three 20-minute training sessions and these improvements were maintained after 6 months. The training benefits also generalized from trained to untrained stimuli. Crucially, perceptual improvements were significantly larger when the adverse conditions were adapted before each training session than when it was set at a fixed level. As the training improvements observed here are markedly larger than those reported in the literature, this indicates that the individualized phonetic training regime in adaptive adverse conditions (HVPT-AAC) is highly effective at improving speech perception.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception/physiology*
Fulltext Speech token detection and discrimination in individual infants using functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Mao D, Wunderlich J, Savkovic B, Jeffreys E, Nicholls N, Lee OW, et al.

Sci Rep, 2021 Dec 14;11(1):24006.
PMID: 34907273 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-03595-z

Speech detection and discrimination ability are important measures of hearing ability that may inform crucial audiological intervention decisions for individuals with a hearing impairment. However, behavioral assessment of speech discrimination can be difficult and inaccurate in infants, prompting the need for an objective measure of speech detection and discrimination ability. In this study, the authors used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) as the objective measure. Twenty-three infants, 2 to 10 months of age participated, all of whom had passed newborn hearing screening or diagnostic audiology testing. They were presented with speech tokens at a comfortable listening level in a natural sleep state using a habituation/dishabituation paradigm. The authors hypothesized that fNIRS responses to speech token detection as well as speech token contrast discrimination could be measured in individual infants. The authors found significant fNIRS responses to speech detection in 87% of tested infants (false positive rate 0%), as well as to speech discrimination in 35% of tested infants (false positive rate 9%). The results show initial promise for the use of fNIRS as an objective clinical tool for measuring infant speech detection and discrimination ability; the authors highlight the further optimizations of test procedures and analysis techniques that would be required to improve accuracy and reliability to levels needed for clinical decision-making.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception/physiology*
Digital noise reduction in hearing aids and its acoustic effect on consonants /s/ and /z/

Chong FY, Jenstad LM

Med J Malaysia, 2018 12;73(6):365-370.
PMID: 30647205

INTRODUCTION: Modulation-based noise reduction (MBNR) is one of the common noise reduction methods used in hearing aids. Gain reduction in high frequency bands may occur for some implementations of MBNR and fricatives might be susceptible to alteration, given the high frequency components in fricative noise. The main objective of this study is to quantify the acoustic effect of MBNR on /s, z/.
METHODS: Speech-and-noise signals were presented to, and recorded from, six hearing aids mounted on a head and torso simulator. Test stimuli were nonsense words mixed with pink, cafeteria, or speech-modulated noise at 0 dB SNR. Fricatives /s, z/ were extracted from the recordings for analysis.
RESULTS: Analysis of the noise confirmed that MBNR in all hearing aids was activated for the recordings. More than 1.0 dB of acoustic change occurred to /s, z/ when MBNR was turned on in four out of the six hearing aids in the pink and cafeteria noise conditions. The acoustics of /s, z/ by female talkers were affected more than male talkers. Significant relationships between amount of noise reduction and acoustic change of /s, z/ were found. Amount of noise reduction accounts for 42.8% and 16.8% of the variability in acoustic change for /s/ and /z/ respectively.
CONCLUSION: Some clinically-available implementations of MBNR have measurable effects on the acoustics of fricatives. Possible implications for speech perception are discussed.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception
Fulltext Mandarin speech perception tests for Malaysian Chinese children

Cila Umat, Chong, Sheue Lih, Siti Zamratol-Mai Sarah Mukari

Jurnal Sains Kesihatan Malaysia, 2010;8(1):31-37.
MyJurnal

The study aimed to develop Mandarin speech perception tests for Malaysian Chinese children. Two tests were developed which were the Syllabic Pattern Perception Test (SPPT) and the Tone Perception Test (TPT). Both tests were designed for children aged between three to six years-old. A total of 80 normal hearing children aged 3 years to 6 years and 11 months from several kindergartens around Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh participated in this study. Results showed that the mean scores for the SPPT did not differ significantly across age (p > 0.05), possibly due to a ceiling effect. Although the SPPT showed relatively low test-retest and inter-rater Spearman correlation coefficients (r = 0.68 for correct syllable pattern response and r = 0.38 for correct item response), the scores were highly repeatable in both test-retest and interrater conditions. For the TPT, the mean scores of five and six year old children were significantly higher than three year old subjects while the mean score of four year old subjects was significantly poorer than the six years old. The test-retest and inter-rater reliability were high and the coefficients approximated 0.80 (p < 0.05). For both tests, gender and dialects or languages used as the second language did not have significant effect on the test scores. Content validity evidence was also collected from a group of panelists. In conclusion, SPPT and TPT are reliable and valid Mandarin speech tests to be used on Malaysian Chinese children who speak Mandarin.

31-37

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception
Fulltext What second-language speakers can tell us about pragmatic processing

Khorsheed A, Md Rashid S, Nimehchisalem V, Geok Imm L, Price J, Ronderos CR

PLoS One, 2022;17(2):e0263724.
PMID: 35180247 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263724

Upon hearing the phrase Some cats meow, a listener might pragmatically infer that 'Some but not all cats meow'. This is known as a scalar implicature and it often arises when a speaker produces a weak linguistic expression instead of a stronger one. Several L2 studies claim that pragmatic inferences are generated by default and their comprehension presents no challenges to L2 learners. However, the evidence obtained from these studies largely stems from offline-based tasks that provide limited information about how scalar implicatures are processed. This study investigated scalar implicature processing among L2 speakers of English and the degree to which differences in L2 proficiency and Theory of Mind abilities would modulate pragmatic responding. The experiment used an online sentence verification paradigm that required participants to judge, among multiple control items, the veracity of under-informative sentences, such as Some cats are mammals, and to respond as quickly as possible. A true response to this item is indicative of a logical some and perhaps all reading and a false response to a pragmatic some but not all reading. Our results showed evidence that scalar inferences are not generated by default. The answer linked to the pragmatic reading some but not all took significantly longer to make relative to the answer that relies on the logical interpretation some and perhaps all. This processing slowdown was also significantly larger among participants with lower English proficiency. Further exploratory analyses of participants' Theory of Mind, as measured by the Social Skill subscale in the Autism Spectrum Quotient, revealed that socially inclined participants are more likely than the socially disinclined to derive a scalar inference. These results together provide new empirical insights into how L2 learners process scalar implicatures and thus implications for processing theories in experimental pragmatics and second language acquisition.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception
Comparing NAL-NL1 and DSL v5 in Hearing Aids Fit to Children with Severe or Profound Hearing Loss: Goodness of Fit-to-Targets, Impacts on Predicted Loudness and Speech Intelligibility

Ching TY, Quar TK, Johnson EE, Newall P, Sharma M

J Am Acad Audiol, 2015 Mar;26(3):260-74.
PMID: 25751694 DOI: 10.3766/jaaa.26.3.6

BACKGROUND: An important goal of providing amplification to children with hearing loss is to ensure that hearing aids are adjusted to match targets of prescriptive procedures as closely as possible. The Desired Sensation Level (DSL) v5 and the National Acoustic Laboratories' prescription for nonlinear hearing aids, version 1 (NAL-NL1) procedures are widely used in fitting hearing aids to children. Little is known about hearing aid fitting outcomes for children with severe or profound hearing loss.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the prescribed and measured gain of hearing aids fit according to the NAL-NL1 and the DSL v5 procedure for children with moderately severe to profound hearing loss; and to examine the impact of choice of prescription on predicted speech intelligibility and loudness.
RESEARCH DESIGN: Participants were fit with Phonak Naida V SP hearing aids according to the NAL-NL1 and DSL v5 procedures. The Speech Intelligibility Index (SII) and estimated loudness were calculated using published models.
STUDY SAMPLE: The sample consisted of 16 children (30 ears) aged between 7 and 17 yr old.
DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: The measured hearing aid gains were compared with the prescribed gains at 50 (low), 65 (medium), and 80 dB SPL (high) input levels. The goodness of fit-to-targets was quantified by calculating the average root-mean-square (RMS) error of the measured gain compared with prescriptive gain targets for 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz. The significance of difference between prescriptions for hearing aid gains, SII, and loudness was examined by performing analyses of variance. Correlation analyses were used to examine the relationship between measures.
RESULTS: The DSL v5 prescribed significantly higher overall gain than the NAL-NL1 procedure for the same audiograms. For low and medium input levels, the hearing aids of all children fit with NAL-NL1 were within 5 dB RMS of prescribed targets, but 33% (10 ears) deviated from the DSL v5 targets by more than 5 dB RMS on average. For high input level, the hearing aid fittings of 60% and 43% of ears deviated by more than 5 dB RMS from targets of NAL-NL1 and DSL v5, respectively. Greater deviations from targets were associated with more severe hearing loss. On average, the SII was higher for DSL v5 than for NAL-NL1 at low input level. No significant difference in SII was found between prescriptions at medium or high input level, despite greater loudness for DSL v5 than for NAL-NL1.
CONCLUSIONS: Although targets between 0.25 and 2 kHz were well matched for both prescriptions in commercial hearing aids, gain targets at 4 kHz were matched for NAL-NL1 only. Although the two prescriptions differ markedly in estimated loudness, they resulted in comparable predicted speech intelligibility for medium and high input levels.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception/physiology*
The effects of aging on the brain activation pattern during a speech perception task: an fMRI study

Manan HA, Franz EA, Yusoff AN, Mukari SZ

Aging Clin Exp Res, 2015 Feb;27(1):27-36.
PMID: 24906677 DOI: 10.1007/s40520-014-0240-0

In the present study, brain activation associated with speech perception processing was examined across four groups of adult participants with age ranges between 20 and 65 years, using functional MRI (fMRI). Cognitive performance demonstrates that performance accuracy declines with age. fMRI results reveal that all four groups of participants activated the same brain areas. The same brain activation pattern was found in all activated areas (except for the right superior temporal gyrus and right middle temporal gyrus); brain activity was increased from group 1 (20-29 years) to group 2 (30-39 years). However, it decreased in group 3 (40-49 years) with further decreases in group 4 participants (50-65 years). Result also reveals that three brain areas (superior temporal gyrus, Heschl's gyrus and cerebellum) showed changes in brain laterality in the older participants, akin to a shift from left-lateralized to right-lateralized activity. The onset of this change was different across brain areas. Based on these findings we suggest that, whereas all four groups of participants used the same areas in processing, the engagement and recruitment of those areas differ with age as the brain grows older. Findings are discussed in the context of corroborating evidence of neural changes with age.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception/physiology*
Perceptual processing of Mandarin nasals by L1 and L2 Mandarin speakers

Lai YH

J Psycholinguist Res, 2012 Aug;41(4):237-52.
PMID: 22089521 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-011-9190-2

Nasals are cross-linguistically susceptible to change, especially in the syllable final position. Acoustic reports on Mandarin nasal production have recently shown that the syllable-final distinction is frequently dropped. Few studies, however, have addressed the issue of perceptual processing in Mandarin nasals for L1 and L2 speakers of Mandarin Chinese. The current paper addressed to what extent and in what directions L1 and L2 speakers of Mandarin differed in perceiving Mandarin nasals. Possible variables, including the linguistic backgrounds (i.e. L1 vs. L2 speakers of Mandarin Chinese), the vocalic contexts (i.e. [i, ə, a, y, ua, uə, ia]) and the phonetic settings (i.e. syllable-initial vs. syllable-final), were discussed. Asymmetrical findings in the current investigation indicated limitations of speech learning theories developed from European languages in the context of Mandarin nasals. A tri-dimensional model was thus suggested for interpreting the cognitive mechanism in Mandarin nasal perception.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception/physiology*
Medial olivocochlear functioning and speech perception in noise in older adults

Mukari SZ, Mamat WH

Audiol. Neurootol., 2008;13(5):328-34.
PMID: 18460868 DOI: 10.1159/000128978

The purposes of this study were to: (1) compare medial olivocochlear system (MOCS) functioning and speech perception in noise in young and older adults and (2) to quantify the correlation between MOCS functioning and speech perception in noise. Measurements were taken in 20 young (mean 26.3 +/- 2.1 years) and 20 older adults (mean 55.2 +/- 2.8 years). Contralateral distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) suppression was measured to assess MOCS functioning. Speech perception in noise was evaluated using the Hearing in Noise Test in noise-ipsilateral, noise-front and noise-contralateral test conditions. The results revealed that the older group had a significantly lower high-frequency (3-8 kHz) contralateral DPOAE suppression, and performed more poorly in the noise-ipsilateral condition than the younger group. However, there was no correlation between contralateral DPOAE suppression and speech perception in noise. This study suggests that poor speech perception performance in noise experienced by older adults might be due to a decline in medial olivocochlear functioning, among other factors.

Matched MeSH terms: Speech Perception/physiology*

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