Speech recognition in rooms requires the temporal integration of reflections which arrive with a certain delay after the direct sound. It is commonly assumed that there is a certain temporal window of about 50-100 ms, during which reflections can be integrated with the direct sound, while later reflections are detrimental to speech intelligibility. This concept was challenged in a recent study by employing binaural room impulse responses (RIRs) with systematically varied interaural phase differences (IPDs) and amplitude of the direct sound and a variable number of reflections delayed by up to 200 ms. When amplitude or IPD favored late RIR components, normal-hearing (NH) listeners appeared to be capable of focusing on these components rather than on the precedent direct sound, which contrasted with the common concept of considering early RIR components as useful and late components as detrimental. The present study investigated speech intelligibility in the same conditions in hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. The data indicate that HI listeners were generally less able to "ignore" the direct sound than NH listeners, when the most useful information was confined to late RIR components. Some HI listeners showed a remarkable inability to integrate across multiple reflections and to optimally "shift" their temporal integration window, which was quite dissimilar to NH listeners. This effect was most pronounced in conditions requiring spatial and temporal integration and could provide new challenges for individual prediction models of binaural speech intelligibility.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/23312165221143901 | DOI Listing |
Arch Public Health
January 2025
School of Medicine and Medical Sciences, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, P.O. Box 446, Jounieh, Lebanon.
Background: Despite its obvious relevance for clinical practice and research, it is surprising that presently no hope measure is available for use among Arabic-speaking populations, especially the most vulnerable ones who have been going through major humanitarian crises. This paper aimed to provide novel insights into psychometric information on the psychometric properties of an Arabic translation of the Perceived Hope Scale (PHS) in Palestinians living in Gaza who have endured several months of suffering since the war began in October 2023.
Method: This study had a cross-sectional design and applied a quantitative research approach.
PLoS Comput Biol
January 2025
Department of Engineering Management, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
Self-motion is an essential but often overlooked component of sound localisation. As the directional information of a source is implicitly contained in head-centred acoustic cues, that acoustic input needs to be continuously combined with sensorimotor information about the head orientation in order to decode to a world-centred frame of reference. When utilised, head movements significantly reduce ambiguities in the directional information provided by the incoming sound.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
School of Computer Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
The rapid urbanization has led to the loss of natural spaces and a subsequent disconnection between humans and nature, negatively affecting residents' well-being and environmental awareness. There is a a growing interest in leveraging technology to address this gap in Human-Computer Interaction. This article introduces GoChirp, an AI-powered wearable device for enhancing nature relatedness within urban landscapes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Audiol
January 2025
Department of Otolaryngology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Purpose: Unilateral cochlear implant (CI) recipients with limited hearing in the contralateral ear are deprived of the advantages of binaural hearing. To address speech recognition challenges arising from the head shadow effect, a contralateral routing of signal (CROS) device can be used; however, less is known of the broader impact of a CROS device on an individual's quality of life (QoL) or that of their frequent communication partners (FCPs). This preliminary study aimed to evaluate the impact of CROS on speech recognition in noise and its influence on the QoL of unilateral CI recipients and their FCPs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Speech Lang Hear Res
January 2025
Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, United Kingdom.
Purpose: Talking in unison with a partner, otherwise known as choral speech, reliably induces fluency in people who stutter (PWS). This effect may arise because choral speech addresses a hypothesized motor timing deficit by giving PWS an external rhythm to align with and scaffold their utterances onto. This study tested this theory by comparing the choral speech rhythm of people who do and do not stutter to assess whether both groups change their rhythm in similar ways when talking chorally.
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