People with sensorineural hearing loss experience a number of abnormalities in auditory analysis of sound in addition to their sensitivity loss. Auditory processes such as frequency and temporal resolution are usually reduced or otherwise altered by cochlear damage, and these deficits may be exacerbated when listening to sounds at high stimulus levels. This may be partially responsible for the difficulties listeners with hearing loss have in understanding speech through their hearing-aids in the presence of background noise. The focus of this program of research is to explore the consequences of listening to sound at high amplitudes by hearing-impaired individuals, with an emphasis on speech and speech-like complex stimuli. Experiments are proposed that will examine changes in frequency resolution that occur in hearing- impaired listeners as stimulus level is increased, the influence of high presentation levels on the discrimination of spectral contrast in speech- like sounds, and sensitivity to phase structure within complex sounds due to impaired frequency resolution and high presentation levels. In addition to the psychoacoustic investigations, which are designed to provide insights into the mechanisms underlying hearing impairment, the impact of these impaired functions will be evaluated in studies directly related to aspects of speech perception by hearing-impaired listeners.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
2R01DC000626-06
Application #
2125859
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-CMS (03))
Project Start
1989-04-01
Project End
1998-03-31
Budget Start
1994-04-01
Budget End
1995-03-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
1994
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
U.S. Walter Reed Army Med Center
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Washington
State
DC
Country
United States
Zip Code
20307
Mertes, Ian B; Wilbanks, Erin C; Leek, Marjorie R (2018) Olivocochlear Efferent Activity Is Associated With the Slope of the Psychometric Function of Speech Recognition in Noise. Ear Hear 39:583-593
Shearer, Daniel E; Molis, Michelle R; Bennett, Keri O et al. (2018) Auditory stream segregation of iterated rippled noises by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. J Acoust Soc Am 143:378
Mertes, Ian B; Leek, Marjorie R (2016) Concurrent measures of contralateral suppression of transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions and of auditory steady-state responses. J Acoust Soc Am 140:2027
Molis, Michelle R; Diedesch, Anna; Gallun, Frederick et al. (2013) Vowel identification by amplitude and phase contrast. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 14:125-37
Bennett, Keri O'Connell; Billings, Curtis J; Molis, Michelle R et al. (2012) Neural encoding and perception of speech signals in informational masking. Ear Hear 33:231-8
Billings, Curtis J; Bennett, Keri O; Molis, Michelle R et al. (2011) Cortical encoding of signals in noise: effects of stimulus type and recording paradigm. Ear Hear 32:53-60
Molis, Michelle R; Leek, Marjorie R (2011) Vowel identification by listeners with hearing impairment in response to variation in formant frequencies. J Speech Lang Hear Res 54:1211-23
Lauer, Amanda M; Dooling, Robert J; Leek, Marjorie R (2009) Psychophysical evidence of damaged active processing mechanisms in Belgian Waterslager Canaries. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 195:193-202
Lauer, Amanda M; Molis, Michelle; Leek, Marjorie R (2009) Discrimination of time-reversed harmonic complexes by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 10:609-19
Lauer, Amanda M; Dooling, Robert J; Leek, Marjorie R et al. (2007) Detection and discrimination of simple and complex sounds by hearing-impaired Belgian Waterslager canaries. J Acoust Soc Am 122:3615-27

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