Investigating the role of extended high-frequency audibility on temporal envelope processing and spatial release from masking.

Extended high-frequency (EHF) hearing loss offers a model for investigating the onset of auditory dysfunction before changes in standard audiometric thresholds occur. However, the impact on auditory perception remains poorly understood. This study evaluated the relationship between EHF hearing sensitivity and monaural and binaural measures of auditory temporal resolution and spatial release from masking in young adults (aged 20-35 years) with normal hearing thresholds in the clinical frequency range (.

Extended high-frequency hearing and suprathreshold neural synchrony in the auditory brainstem.

Elevated hearing thresholds in the extended high frequencies (EHFs) (>8 kHz) are often associated with poorer speech-in-noise recognition despite a clinically normal audiogram. However, whether EHF hearing loss is associated with disruptions in neural processing within the auditory brainstem remains uncertain. The objective of the present study was to investigate whether elevated EHF thresholds influence neural processing at lower frequencies in individuals with normal audiograms.

Early signs of auditory aging: Hearing declines faster in individuals with extended high frequency hearing loss.

Hearing loss, particularly age-related hearing loss, significantly impacts health and quality of life worldwide. While much of the research has focused on older adults, the early stages of hearing decline remain relatively unexplored. Longitudinal studies examining hearing changes across the adult lifespan, especially at extended high frequencies (EHFs), are scarce.

Exploring the Influence of Extended High-Frequency Hearing on Cochlear Functioning at Lower Frequencies.

Purpose: Diminished basal cochlear function, as indicated by elevated hearing thresholds in the extended high frequencies (EHFs), has been associated with lower levels of click-evoked and distortion-product otoacoustic emissions measured at lower frequencies. However, stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emissions (SFOAEs) at low-probe levels are reflection-source emissions that do not share the same generation mechanism as distortion-source emissions. The primary objective of the present study was to examine the influence of hearing thresholds in the EHFs on SFOAEs measured at lower frequencies.

The Not-So-Slight Perceptual Consequences of Slight Hearing Loss in School-Age Children: A Scoping Review.

Purpose: This study aimed to conduct a scoping review of research exploring the effects of slight hearing loss on auditory and speech perception in children.

Method: A comprehensive search conducted in August 2023 identified a total of 402 potential articles sourced from eight prominent bibliographic databases. These articles were subjected to rigorous evaluation for inclusion criteria, specifically focusing on their reporting of speech or auditory perception using psychoacoustic tasks.

Midlife Speech Perception Deficits: Impact of Extended High-Frequency Hearing, Peripheral Neural Function, and Cognitive Abilities.

Objectives: The objectives of the present study were to investigate the effects of age-related changes in extended high-frequency (EHF) hearing, peripheral neural function, working memory, and executive function on speech perception deficits in middle-aged individuals with clinically normal hearing.

Design: We administered a comprehensive assessment battery to 37 participants spanning the age range of 20 to 56 years. This battery encompassed various evaluations, including standard and EHF pure-tone audiometry, ranging from 0.

Explainable machine learning reveals the relationship between hearing thresholds and speech-in-noise recognition in listeners with normal audiograms.

Some individuals complain of listening-in-noise difficulty despite having a normal audiogram. In this study, machine learning is applied to examine the extent to which hearing thresholds can predict speech-in-noise recognition among normal-hearing individuals. The specific goals were to (1) compare the performance of one standard (GAM, generalized additive model) and four machine learning models (ANN, artificial neural network; DNN, deep neural network; RF, random forest; XGBoost; eXtreme gradient boosting), and (2) examine the relative contribution of individual audiometric frequencies and demographic variables in predicting speech-in-noise recognition.

Auditory Deprivation during Development Alters Efferent Neural Feedback and Perception.

Auditory experience plays a critical role in hearing development. Developmental auditory deprivation because of otitis media, a common childhood disease, produces long-standing changes in the central auditory system, even after the middle ear pathology is resolved. The effects of sound deprivation because of otitis media have been mostly studied in the ascending auditory system but remain to be examined in the descending pathway that runs from the auditory cortex to the cochlea via the brainstem.

Suprathreshold auditory processes in listeners with normal audiograms but extended high-frequency hearing lossa).

Hearing loss in the extended high-frequency (EHF) range (>8 kHz) is widespread among young normal-hearing adults and could have perceptual consequences such as difficulty understanding speech in noise. However, it is unclear how EHF hearing loss might affect basic psychoacoustic processes. The hypothesis that EHF hearing loss is associated with poorer auditory resolution in the standard frequencies was tested.

Functional consequences of extended high frequency hearing impairment: Evidence from the speech, spatial, and qualities of hearing scale.

Hearing loss in the extended high frequencies, despite a normal audiogram, could affect speech-in-noise recognition. However, it is not known if extended high frequency (EHF) hearing loss is associated with everyday listening and communication deficits. The present study aimed to determine the functional effects of impaired EHF hearing among adults using the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (SSQ).

Hearing Impairment in the Extended High Frequencies in Children Despite Clinically Normal Hearing.

Objectives: Pediatric hearing impairment, regardless of degree and type, has a detrimental effect on speech perception, cognition, oral language development, academic outcomes, and literacy. Hearing assessment in the clinic is limited to 8 kHz although humans can hear up to 20 kHz. Hearing impairment in the extended high frequencies (EHFs > 8 kHz) can occur despite clinically normal hearing.

Extended High-frequency Hearing Impairment Despite a Normal Audiogram: Relation to Early Aging, Speech-in-noise Perception, Cochlear Function, and Routine Earphone Use.

Objectives: Humans can hear up to 20 kHz. Emerging evidence suggests that hearing in the extended high frequencies (EHFs; >8 kHz) contributes to speech perception in noise. The objective of the present study was to describe the features of EHF hearing impairment in young adults with normal standard audiograms (0.

Sexual Dimorphism in the Functional Development of the Cochlear Amplifier in Humans.

Objectives: Otoacoustic emissions, a byproduct of active cochlear mechanisms, exhibit a higher magnitude in females than in males. The relatively higher levels of androgen exposure in the male fetus are thought to cause this difference. Postnatally, the onset of puberty is also associated with the androgen surge in males.

Unilateral auditory deprivation in humans: Effects on frequency discrimination and auditory memory span in the normal ear.

Hearing with one ear is associated with auditory deprivation leading to cortical neuronal reorganization. Despite evidence for substantial effects of unilateral input on cortical and sub-cortical structures, the functional consequences of such alterations on human hearing is underexplored. Unilateral hearing impairment offers a unique model to study the perceptual consequences of cortical reorganization.

Basic Measures of Auditory Perception in Children: No Evidence for Mediation by Auditory Working Memory Capacity.

Immature auditory perception in children has generally been ascribed to deficiencies in cognitive factors, such as working memory and inattention. This notion appears to be commonly accepted for all children despite limited empirical evidence. In the present work, we examined whether working memory capacity would predict basic aspects of hearing, pure-tone frequency discrimination and temporal gap detection, in typically-developing, normal-hearing children (7-12 years).

Auditory Development of Frequency Discrimination at Extended High Frequencies.

Objectives: Hearing in the extended high frequencies (EHFs; >8 kHz) is perceptually and clinically relevant. Recent work suggests the possible role of EHF audibility in natural listening environments (e.g.

The role of efferents in human auditory development: efferent inhibition predicts frequency discrimination in noise for children.

The descending corticofugal fibers originate from the auditory cortex and exert control on the periphery via the olivocochlear efferents. Medial efferents are thought to enhance the discriminability of transient sounds in background noise. In addition, the observation of deleterious long-term effects of efferent sectioning on the response properties of auditory nerve fibers in neonatal cats supports an efferent-mediated control of normal development.

Neural Encoding of Amplitude Modulations in the Human Efferent System.

Most natural sounds, including speech, exhibit temporal amplitude fluctuations. This information is encoded as amplitude modulations (AM)-essential for auditory and speech perception. The neural representation of AM has been studied at various stages of the ascending auditory system from the auditory nerve to the cortex.

Efferent-induced alterations in distortion and reflection otoacoustic emissions in children.

The medial olivocochlear efferent fibers control outer hair cell responses and inhibit the cochlear-amplifier gain. Measuring efferent function is both theoretically and clinically relevant. In humans, medial efferent inhibition can be assayed via otoacoustic emissions (OAEs).

Comparison of time-frequency methods for analyzing stimulus frequency otoacoustic emissions.

Stimulus frequency otoacoustic emissions (SFOAEs) can have multiple time varying components, including multiple internal reflections. It is, therefore, necessary to study SFOAEs using techniques that can represent their time-frequency behavior. Although various time-frequency schemes can be applied to identify and filter SFOAE components, their accuracy for SFOAE analysis has not been investigated.

Sweep-tone evoked stimulus frequency otoacoustic emissions in humans: Development of a noise-rejection algorithm and normative features.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest to measure stimulus frequency otoacoustic emissions (SFOAEs) using sweep tones. While there are several advantages of the sweep-tone technique, one of the major problems with sweep-tone methodologies is the lack of an objective analysis procedure that considers and rejects individual noisy recordings or noisy segments. A new efficient data-driven method for rejecting noisy segments in SFOAE analysis is proposed and the normative features of SFOAEs are characterized in fifty normal-hearing young adults.

Auditory Cognitive Training for Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients.

Objectives: Understanding speech in noise is the biggest challenge faced by individuals with cochlear implants (CIs). Improving speech-in-noise perception for pediatric CI recipients continues to remain a high priority for all stakeholders. This study was designed to investigate the efficacy of working memory training for improving speech-in-noise recognition for children with CIs.

Maturation of middle ear transmission in children.

The goal of the current study was to characterize the normative features of wideband acoustic immittance in children for describing the functional maturation of the middle ear in 5 to 12-year-old children. Absorbance and group delay were measured in adults and three groups of children, 5-6, 7-9 and 10-12-year-olds, in a cross-sectional design. Absorbance showed significant effects of the age group in four out of ten center frequencies of one-half-octave bins from 211 to 6000 Hz, while there was no significant effect for group delay at any frequency.

Influence of medial olivocochlear efferents on the sharpness of cochlear tuning estimates in children.

The present study objectively quantified the efferent-induced changes in the sharpness of cochlear tuning estimates and compared these alterations in cochlear tuning between adults and children. Click evoked otoacoustic emissions with and without contralateral broadband noise were recorded from 15 young adults and 14 children aged between 5 and 10 yrs. Time-frequency distributions of click evoked otoacoustic emissions were obtained via the S-transform, and the otoacoustic emission latencies were used to estimate the sharpness of cochlear tuning.

Rapid auditory learning of temporal gap detection.

The rapid initial phase of training-induced improvement has been shown to reflect a genuine sensory change in perception. Several features of early and rapid learning, such as generalization and stability, remain to be characterized. The present study demonstrated that learning effects from brief training on a temporal gap detection task using spectrally similar narrowband noise markers defining the gap (within-channel task), transfer across ears, however, not across spectrally dissimilar markers (between-channel task).