Relationship between measures related to the cochlear active mechanism and speech reception thresholds in backgrounds with and without spectral and/or temporal fluctuations

The importance of the cochlear active mechanism in the reception of speech in different types of noise was explored. The perceptual effects of loudness recruitment, a consequence of loss of the active mechanism, were assessed in simulated-loss listeners using a multiband expansion algorithm that models abnormal cochlear linearity. While this algorithm, which derives the expansion characteristic from absolute hearing thresholds, can accurately simulate the mean speech intelligibility results of hearing-impaired listeners, its ability to simulate the performance of individual listeners is limited. Given the relationship between loudness perception and the active mechanism, deriving the expansion characteristic from estimates of cochlear compression should provide a more accurate model of an individual listener's impairment. Towards this aim, the reliability of two psychoacoustic methods used to estimate the magnitude of compression (growth of masking and temporal masking) was assessed. Results suggest that growth of masking is a more reliable measure of compression in listeners with both normal and impaired hearing. The relationship between the compressive characteristics of the auditory system and speech perception in complex acoustic backgrounds was also evaluated. The operational status of the active mechanism was assessed behaviorally using three independently derived measures: (1) slope ratio of off- and on-frequency growth of masking functions, (2) equivalent rectangular bandwidth of auditory filters, and (3) masker-phase masking differences. These measures were correlated with speech reception thresholds (SRTs) in backgrounds with and without spectral and/or temporal-modulations. The relationship between slope ratios, filter bandwidths, and the maximum

Department dc:contributor.department

Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Rosengard, Peninah S., 1970-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Louis D. Braida and Andrew J. Oxenham.

• Harvard University--MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/28598

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/28598