Sensorineural Hearing Loss Diminishes Use of Temporal Envelope Cues: Evidence From Roving-Level Tone-in-Noise Detection.
U-Cheng Leong, Douglas M Schwarz, Kenneth S Henry and 1 others
PMID 31985535WHAT IT FOUND
Listeners with sensorineural hearing loss relied more on sound-level cues and less on envelope timing cues when detecting tones in noise, especially at 4 kHz.
This was a lab task, not a hearing aid trial.
Key findings
01Normal-hearing listeners changed little when sound level was varied randomly, with mean threshold shifts of 0.8 to 1.4 dB.
02Listeners with sensorineural hearing loss changed more, and the shift grew with frequency: 2.2 dB at 500 Hz, 3.3 dB at 1000 and 2000 Hz, and 5.7 dB at 4000 Hz.
03After age was controlled, the threshold shift correlated with pure-tone threshold at 4 kHz, but not with QuickSIN scores.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study had 24 listeners, with 12 in each group. The normal-hearing and hearing-loss groups were not age matched: mean age was 37.5 years and 66 years. The task was tone detection in noise, not speech recognition in noise or hearing aid use. Some listeners with hearing loss could not be tested at all masker levels or frequencies because of their degree of hearing loss. The rove effect did not correlate with QuickSIN speech-in-noise scores. The authors state that the age mismatch makes it difficult to separate the effect of hearing loss alone from aging.
Declared interests
The article's conflict statement says the authors have no conflicts of interest. The supplied publication types list NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that hearing aids should be changed to emphasize timing cues based on this study. It tested tone detection in noise, not hearing aid fitting or speech-in-noise outcomes, and the rove effect did not correlate with QuickSIN scores.