Andrea Hillock‐Dunn

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

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Emily Buss

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Lori J. Leibold

Boys Town

Mark T. Wallace

Vanderbilt Health

Crystal N. Taylor

Appalachian State University

Patricia Roush

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Diana K. Sarko

Southern Illinois University School of Medicine

Albert R. Powers

Yale University

Dipanwita Ghose

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Nicole Duncan

Seagen (United States)

Matthew Fister

University of Alabama

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Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University Medical Center

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Google (United States)

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Indiana University School of Medicine

University of North Carolina Health Care

University of Chicago

University of Florida

University of Washington

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Assessing Speech Perception in Children With Hearing Loss

Ear and Hearing (2014)

Andrea Hillock‐Dunn Crystal N. Taylor Emily Buss Lori J. Leibold

This study tested the hypothesis that word recognition in a complex, two-talker masker is more closely related to real-world speech perception for children with hearing loss than testing performed in quiet or steady-state noise.Sixteen school-age hearing aid users were tested on aided word recognition in noise or two-talker speech. Unaided estimates of speech perception in quiet were retrospectively obtained from the clinical record. Ten parents completed a questionnaire regarding their children's ease of communication and understanding in background noise.Unaided performance in quiet was correlated with aided performance in competing noise, but not in two-talker speech. Only results in the two-talker masker were correlated with parental reports of their children's functional hearing abilities.Speech perception testing in a complex background such as two-talker speech may provide a more accurate predictor of the communication challenges of children with hearing loss than testing in steady noise or quiet.

10.1097/aud.0000000000000110

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Citations (38)

Effects of Nonlinear Frequency Compression on Speech Identification in Children With Hearing Loss

Ear and Hearing (2014)

Andrea Hillock‐Dunn Emily Buss Nicole Duncan Patricia Roush Lori J. Leibold

This study evaluated effects of nonlinear frequency compression (NLFC) processing in children with hearing loss for consonant identification in quiet and for spondee identification in competing noise or speech. It was predicted that participants would benefit from NLFC for consonant identification in quiet when access to high-frequency information was critical, but that NLFC would be less beneficial, or even detrimental, when identification relied on mid-frequency cues. Further, it was hypothesized that NLFC could result in greater susceptibility to masking in the spondee task. The rationale for these predictions is that improved access to high-frequency information comes at the cost of decreased spectral resolution.A repeated-measures design compared speech-perception outcomes in 17 pediatric hearing aid users (9 to 17 years of age) wearing Naida V SP "laboratory" hearing aids with NLFC on and off. Data were also collected in an initial baseline session in which children wore their personal hearing aids. Children with a wide range of audiometric configurations were included, but all participants were full-time users of hearing aids with active NLFC. For each hearing aid condition, speech perception was assessed in the sound field by using a closed-set 12-alternative consonant-vowel identification measure in quiet, and a closed-set four-alternative spondee-identification measure in a speech-shaped noise or in a two-talker speech masker.No significant differences in performance were observed between laboratory hearing aid conditions with NLFC activated or deactivated for either speech-perception measure. An unexpected finding was that the majority of participants had no difficulty identifying the high-frequency consonant /s/ even when NLFC was deactivated. Investigation into individual differences revealed that subjects with a greater difference in audible bandwidth with NLFC on versus NLFC off were less likely to demonstrate improvements in high-frequency consonant identification in quiet, but were more likely to demonstrate improvements in spondee identification in speech-shaped noise. Group results observed in the initial baseline assessment using personal aids fitted with more aggressive NLFC settings than used in laboratory aids indicated better consonant identification accuracy in quiet. However, spondee identification in the two-talker masker was poorer with personal compared with laboratory hearing aids. Comparisons across personal and laboratory hearing aids are tempered, however, by the potential of an order effect.The observation of comparable performance with NLFC on and NLFC off in the laboratory aids provides evidence that NLFC is neither detrimental nor advantageous when modest in strength. Results with personal hearing aids fitted with stronger compression settings than laboratory aids (NLFC on) highlight the critical need for further research to determine the impact of NLFC processing on speech perception for a wider range of speech-perception measures and compression settings.

Identification

10.1097/aud.0000000000000007

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Citations (27)

Effect of talker sex on infants' detection of spondee words in a two-talker or a speech-shaped noise masker

Proceedings of meetings on acoustics (2013)

Lori J. Leibold Crystal N. Taylor Andrea Hillock‐Dunn Emily Buss

Speech recognition performance in the presence of competing speech is typically better for adults when the target and masker talkers are different sexes than when the target and masker talkers are the same sex. One explanation for this result is that the acoustic differences between male and female speech productions promote segregation of the two streams of speech, thus leading to a reduction in informational masking. In this study, an observer-based psychophysical procedure was used to compare infants' (7-13 months) masked speech detection thresholds for spondee words produced by a male or a female talker in either a two-female-talker or a speech-shaped noise masker. Infants were assigned to a single testing condition. Maskers were presented continuously throughout testing at an overall level of 50 dB SPL, fixed throughout testing. Following training to an 80%-correct criterion, thresholds for the target word were measured adaptively using a 2-down, 1-up procedure. Preliminary data indicate that infants' thresholds were similar for the female and male target words in both the two-female-talker and the speech-shaped noise masker.

10.1121/1.4799203

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Developmental changes in the multisensory temporal binding window persist into adolescence

Developmental Science (2012)

Andrea Hillock‐Dunn Mark T. Wallace

We live in a world rich in sensory information, and consequently the brain is challenged with deciphering which cues from the various sensory modalities belong together. Determinations regarding the relatedness of sensory information appear to be based, at least in part, on the spatial and temporal relationships between the stimuli. Stimuli that are presented in close spatial and temporal correspondence are more likely to be associated with one another and thus 'bound' into a single perceptual entity. While there is a robust literature delineating behavioral changes in perception induced by multisensory stimuli, maturational changes in multisensory processing, particularly in the temporal realm, are poorly understood. The current study examines the developmental progression of multisensory temporal function by analyzing responses on an audiovisual simultaneity judgment task in 6- to 23-year-old participants. The overarching hypothesis for the study was that multisensory temporal function will mature with increasing age, with the developmental trajectory for this change being the primary point of inquiry. Results indeed reveal an age-dependent decrease in the size of the 'multisensory temporal binding window', the temporal interval within which multisensory stimuli are likely to be perceptually bound, with changes occurring over a surprisingly protracted time course that extends into adolescence.

Stimulus modality

Multisensory Integration

Time perception

10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01171.x

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Citations (138)

Effect of talker sex on infants’ detection of spondee words in a two-talker or a speech-shaped noise masker

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (2013)

Lori J. Leibold Crystal N. Taylor Andrea Hillock‐Dunn Emily Buss

Speech recognition performance in the presence of competing speech is typically better for adults when the target and masker talkers are different sexes than when the target and masker talkers are the same sex. One explanation for this result is that the acoustic differences between male and female speech productions promote segregation of the two streams of speech, thus leading to a reduction in informational masking. In this study, an observer-based psychophysical procedure was used to compare infants’ (7–13 months) masked speech detection thresholds for spondee words produced by a male or a female talker in either a two-female-talker or a speech-shaped noise masker. Infants were assigned to a single testing condition. Maskers were presented continuously throughout testing at an overall level of 50 dB SPL, fixed throughout testing. Following training to an 80%-correct criterion, thresholds for the target word were measured adaptively using a 2-down, 1-up procedure. Infants’ thresholds in the two-female-talker masker were higher for the female compared to the male target word. In contrast, infants’ thresholds were similar for the female and male target words in the speech-shaped noise masker. These results suggest that introducing a different sex between the target and masker aids in the segregation of sounds for infants, as has previously been shown for adults. [Work supported by the NIH.]

10.1121/1.4805624

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Citations (3)

Influence of Hearing Loss on Children’s Identification of Spondee Words in a Speech-Shaped Noise or a Two-Talker Masker

Ear and Hearing (2013)

Lori J. Leibold Andrea Hillock‐Dunn Nicole Duncan Patricia Roush Emily Buss

This study evaluated the influence of hearing loss on children's speech-perception abilities in a speech-shaped noise or a two-talker masker. For both masker conditions, it was predicted that children with hearing loss would require a more advantageous signal to noise ratio (SNR) than children with normal hearing to achieve the same criterion level of performance. However, it was hypothesized that the performance gap between children with hearing loss and children with normal hearing would be larger in the two-talker than in the speech-shaped noise masker.A repeated-measures design compared the spondee identification performance of two age groups of children with hearing loss (9-11 and 13-17 years of age) and a group of children with normal hearing (9-11 years of age) in continuous speech-shaped noise or a two-talker masker. Estimates of the SNR required for 70.7% correct spondee identification were obtained using an adaptive, four-alternative, forced-choice procedure. Children were tested in the sound field. Children with hearing loss wore their personal hearing aids at their regular settings during testing.Both groups of children with hearing loss performed more poorly than children with normal hearing in the speech-shaped noise masker. Younger children required an additional 2.7 dB SNR and older children required an additional 4.7 dB SNR to achieve the same level of performance as children with normal hearing. This disadvantage decreased to 8.1 dB for both age groups of children with hearing loss in the two-talker masker. For children with hearing loss, degree of hearing loss was significantly correlated with performance in the speech-shaped noise masker, but not in the two-talker masker.A larger performance gap was observed between children with hearing loss and children with normal hearing in competing speech than in steady state noise. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that hearing loss influenced children's perceptual processing abilities.

Hearing aid

10.1097/aud.0b013e3182857742

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Citations (37)

Development of multisensory temporal processing: Bridging between animal and human studies

Multisensory Research (2013)

Mark T. Wallace Andrea Hillock‐Dunn Ryan A. Stevenson Juliane Krueger-Fister Diana K. Sarko

Multisensory Research 26 Supplement (2013) 54 brill.com/msr Talk, “Development and plasticity in multisensory processes” Symposium Development of multisensory temporal processing: Bridging between animal and human studies Mark T. Wallace 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , ∗ , Andrea Hillock-Dunn 5 , Dipanwita Ghose 2 , Juliane Krueger-Fister 4 , Diana Sarko 1 , 4 and Ryan Stevenson 1 , 4 1 Department of Hearing & Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA 2 Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA 3 Department of Psychiatry, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA 4 Vanderbilt Brain Institute, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN,

10.1163/22134808-000s0033

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Citations (0)

Effects of Nonlinear Frequency Compression on Speech Identification in Children With Hearing Loss

Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (2014)

Andrea Hillock‐Dunn Emily Buss Nicole Duncan Patricia Roush Lori J. Leibold

Identification

10.17615/exvf-hr88

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Citations (0)

Assessing Speech Perception in Children With Hearing Loss: What Conventional Clinical Tools May Miss

Carolina Digital Repository (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) (2015)