Perception of Speech in Context by Listeners With Healthy and Impaired Hearing
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age18-65
SponsorMarquette University
About this trial
Recognition of speech sounds is accomplished through the use of adjacent sounds in time, in what is termed acoustic context. The frequency and temporal properties of these contextual sounds play a large role in recognition of human speech. Historically, most research on both speech perception and sound perception in general examine sounds out-of-context, or presented individually. Further, these studies have been conducted independently of each other with little connection across labs, across sounds, etc. These approaches slow the progress in understanding how listeners with hearing difficulties use context to recognize speech and how their hearing aids and/or cochlear implants might be modified to improve their perception. This research has three main goals. First, the investigators predict that performance in speech sound recognition experiments will be related when testing the same speech frequencies or the same moments in time, but that performance will not be related in further comparisons across speech frequencies or at different moments in time. Second, the investigators predict that adding background noise will make this contextual speech perception more difficult, and that these difficulties will be more severe for listeners with hearing loss. Third, the investigators predict that cochlear implant users will also use surrounding sounds in their speech recognition, but with key differences than healthy-hearing listeners owing to the sound processing done by their implants. In tandem with these goals, the investigators will use computer models to simulate how neurons respond to speech sounds individually and when surrounded by other sounds.
Eligibility criteria
This trial accepts healthy volunteersQualifiers
Be able to recognize spoken words in English
Be a competent speaker of north American English
Be an adult between the age of 18 to 65 years
Have normal audiometric thresholds below 25 decibels hearing loss (dB HL) at frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz OR have audiometric thresholds not exceeding 40 dB HL at frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz OR have audiometric thresholds not exceeding 55 dB HL at frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz OR use a cochlear implant
Disqualifiers
Inability to recognize spoken words in English
Not a competent speaker of north American English
Be younger than 18 years of age
Be older than 65 years of age
Trial design
Design model
Single group
Treatments tested in this trial
Speech Manipulation
BehavioralThe acoustic properties of speech sounds will be modified in two main ways. The first way is to introduce gradual changes to the perceived articulation of the target speech sound, such as changing from "sh" to "s" by various types of signal processing and filtering. The second type of change is to modify acoustic properties of the sounds that immediately precede the target speech sound, such as changing the speaking rate or its frequencies composition.
Treatment groups
680 Participants
are divided into 1 treatment groupGroup A: Speech perception experimentsExperimental treatment 1 intervention
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Speech categorization
The participant sits inside a double-walled sound booth. They are seated at a table that contains a computer monitor and a mouse. A single utterance is played over headphones or through a loudspeaker directly in front, and the participant indicates what they thought the utterance was by selecting among various options on the screen using the mouse. During a single block of trials there are between 60 and 160 sounds, depending on the exact experiment. Ordering of stimuli within the block is randomized. That testing block may be repeated multiple times so that the proportion of responses for each sound-response pair can be estimated reliably and precisely. Completion and advancement of trials is at the participant's own pace. Each testing block takes between 4 and 15 minutes.
Time frame
"Post-treatment" where "treatment" is the systematic manipulation of speech sounds. Speech categorization will be evaluated during the main part of the testing. Outcomes will be assessed and data reported through study completion, an average of 1 yearSecondary outcomes
1
Speech recognition
The participant sits inside a double-walled sound booth. They are seated at a table that contains a computer monitor and a mouse. Recorded sentences are played over headphones or through a loudspeaker directly in front, and the participant indicates what they thought the utterance was by typing their response or repeating the sentence aloud. During a single block of trials there are 50 words. Ordering of words within the block is randomized. Completion and advancement of trials is at the participant's own pace. Each testing block takes between 6 and 15 minutes.
Time frame
"Post-treatment" where "treatment" is the systematic manipulation of speech sounds. Word recognition will be evaluated during the main part of the testing. Outcomes will be assessed and data reported through study completion, an average of 1 year2
Audiometric threshold testing
The participant sits inside a double-walled sound booth. Under headphones, they listen for soft tones played by an audiometer. The experimenter controls the timing, frequency and intensity of those tones to find the lowest sound intensity where the participant can detect the tone. Thresholds for sound detection are recorded for octave frequencies between 250 Hz and 8000 Hz.
Time frame
BaselineSponsors and contacts
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Marquette University
Lead sponsor
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Collaborator
Source ClinicalTrials.gov