The Effects of Light Level and Signal-to-Noise Ratio on the Task-Evoked Pupil Response in a Speech-in-Noise Task.

Purpose: There is increasing interest in the measurement of cognitive effort during listening tasks, for both research and clinical purposes. Quantification of task-evoked pupil responses (TEPRs) is a psychophysiological method that can be used to study cognitive effort. However, light level during cognitively demanding listening tasks may affect TEPRs, complicating interpretation of listening-related changes.

A comment on the order of report in two-pair dichotic digit testing in children assessed for auditory processing.

Objective: This clinical note aimed to 1) describe the order-of-report (OoR) strategies used by a large sample of children who completed 2pDD testing in the free-recall condition as part of an audiological assessment of auditory processing (AP), and 2) determine if use of OoR correlated with 2pDD test performance.

Design: A retrospective (case-review), single observation design.

Study Sample: A convenient sample of 77 children (50 males and 27 females aged 7.

The Task-Evoked Pupil Response in Divided Auditory Attention Tasks.

Background: Successful processing of complex auditory information relies on the interplay between low-level sensory processing and higher-level cognitive processing. However, the extent to which specific auditory processing tasks rely on cognitive processing as opposed to lower-level sensory processing is unclear. The task-evoked pupil response (TEPR) can quantify the cognitive load that complex listening tasks elicit.

The Effect of Increased Cognitive Demand on Auditory Processing Assessment.

Background: Auditory processing (AP) is commonly regarded as the perceptual processing of auditory information in the central nervous system. However, the degree to which higher level cognitive processes are involved in AP or its disorders is contentious. Furthermore, there is little evidence regarding the effects of nonauditory cognitive processes on the various tests of AP in common clinical usage and thus on clinical diagnoses of auditory processing disorder.

Modification of the Threshold Equalising Noise (TEN) test for cochlear dead regions for use with steeply sloping high-frequency hearing loss.

Steeply sloping high-frequency hearing loss is often associated with cochlear dead regions. These can be identified by measuring pure-tone thresholds in quiet and in Threshold-Equalising Noise (TEN). However, many patients cannot be adequately tested because the low frequencies in the TEN lead to uncomfortable loudness.

Simultaneous suppression of tone burst-evoked otoacoustic emissions--effect of level and presentation paradigm.

There is conflict in the literature over whether individual frequency components of a transient-evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) are generated within relatively independent "channels" along the basilar membrane (BM), or whether each component may be generated by widespread areas of the BM. Two previous studies on TEOAE suppression are consistent with generation within largely independent channels, but with a degree of interaction between nearby channels. However, both these studies reported significant suppression only at high stimulus levels, at which the "nonlinear" presentation paradigm was used.

Transducer hysteresis contributes to "stimulus artifact" in the measurement of click-evoked otoacoustic emissions (L).

Click-evoked otoacoustic emissions from the human ear are typically several orders of magnitude smaller than the stimuli that elicit them--a measurement technique that attempts to cancel the stimulus signal from the recorded waveform is therefore typically employed. In practice, an imperfect cancellation of the stimulus is achieved, leaving a "stimulus artifact" that obscures the early part of the emission. Input-output nonlinearities of the transducers used in recording emissions are acknowledged as one source of the stimulus artifact.

Reassessment of cochlear dead regions in hearing-impaired teenagers with severe-to-profound hearing loss.

The aim of this study was to reassess cochlear dead regions after an interval of twelve months, using the Threshold Equalising Noise (TEN) test. Thirty-four ears of 24 teenagers (mean age of 14 years) with longstanding severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing impairment were tested. Testing was repeated after an interval of 12 months using the same experimental set-up.

Dynamic nonlinear cochlear model predictions of click-evoked otoacoustic emission suppression.

A comprehensive set of results from 2-click suppression experiments on otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) have been presented by Kapadia and Lutman [Kapadia, S., Lutman, M.E.

Does static ear canal pressure influence pure tone pitch perception?

Objective: That static ear canal air pressure (ECP) influences the frequency of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) suggests that it may influence intracochlear, in addition to middle ear, processes. A previous study suggested that ECP influences pure tone pitch perception at 1,000 Hz, which was interpreted as indicating an effect on the cochlear place-frequency map. The present study extended investigations of this effect to 500 and 4,000 Hz.