Frequency compression on speech recognition in elderly people with possible cochlear dead regions
Compressão de frequências no reconhecimento de fala de idosos com possíveis zonas mortas na cóclea
Amanda Dal Piva Gresele; Maristela Julio Costa; Michele Vargas Garcia
Abstract
Purpose: to evaluate and compare the performance of elderly people with and without cochlear dead regions in speech recognition tests, in silence and in noise, using hearing aids with and without the activation of the nonlinear frequency compression algorithm.
Methods: 38 elderly people with mild to moderate hearing loss and descending configuration, distributed based on the results of the white noise masking technique, in: Group A – 24 elderly people without evidence of cochlear dead regions; Group B – 14 elderly people with evidence of cochlear dead regions. The Lists of Sentences in Portuguese test was applied, seeking the Percentage Index of Sentence Recognition in Silence and in noise. The measurements were obtained using the hearing aids without and with nonlinear frequency compression.
Results: both Group A and Group B showed statistically significant improvement in silence with the hearing aids with the algorithm; in noise no group presented significant difference without and with frequency compression. Comparing the groups, there was no significant difference in silence without and with frequency compression. In noise without the algorithm there was significant difference, Group B being the better of the two. In noise without frequency compression there was no significant difference.
Conclusion: in silence, both groups presented significant improvement in performance using hearing aids with frequency compression. In noise, there was no difference between the results without or with frequency compression. Comparing the groups, the measurement obtained in noise with hearing aids without the algorithm was the only one that presented significant difference, in which the group with cochlear dead regions presented better performance.
Keywords
Resumo
Objetivo: avaliar e comparar o desempenho de idosos sem e com zonas mortas na cóclea em testes de reconhecimento de fala, no silêncio e no ruído, usando próteses auditivas sem e com compressão não linear de frequências.
Métodos: participaram 38 idosos com perda auditiva de grau leve a moderado e configuração descendente, distribuídos, com base nos resultados da técnica de mascaramento com ruído branco, em: Grupo A – 24 idosos sem indícios de zonas mortas na cóclea; Grupo B – 14 idosos com possíveis zonas mortas na cóclea. Aplicou-se o teste Listas de Sentenças em Português, pesquisando-se os Índices Percentuais de Reconhecimento de Sentenças no Silêncio e no Ruído. As medidas foram obtidas com próteses auditivas, sem e com compressão de frequências.
Resultados: o grupo A e o B apresentaram melhora significante no silêncio com as próteses auditivas com compressão de frequências; no ruído nenhum grupo apresentou diferença sem e com compressão de freqüências. Comparando-se os grupos, não houve diferença no silêncio sem e com compressão de frequências. No ruído sem a ativação da compressão houve diferença significante, sendo melhor o desempenho do grupo B. No ruído com a ativação do recurso não houve diferença significante.
Conclusão: no silêncio, ambos os grupos apresentaram melhor desempenho usando próteses com compressão de frequências. No ruído, não houve diferença entre os resultados sem e com compressão de frequências. Comparando-se os grupos, a medida obtida no ruído com próteses auditivas sem compressão de frequências apresentou diferença, na qual o grupo com zonas mortas obteve melhor desempenho.
Palavras-chave
Referências
1. Von Békesy G. Concerning the pleasures of observing, and the mechanics of the inner ear, 1961. In: Nobel Lecture, 1961. Disponível em: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1961/bekesy-lecture.pdf.
2. Russo ICP, Behlau M. Percepção da fala: análise acústica do português brasileiro. São Paulo: Lovise; 1993.
3. Moore BCJ, Glasberg BR. A model of loudness perception applied to cochlear hearing loss. Auditory Neuroscience. 1997;3:289-311.
4. Smith MW, Faulkner A. Perceptual adaptation by normally hearing listeners to a simulated "hole" in hearing. J Acoust Soc Am. 2006;120(6):4019-30.
5. Vestergaard M. Dead regions in the cochlea: implication for speech recognition and applicability of articulation index theory. Int J Audiol. 2003;42(5):249-61.
6. Moore BCJ, Vinay SN. Enhanced discrimination of low-frequency sounds for subjects with high-frequency dead regions. Brain. 2009;132(2):524-36.
7. Preminger JE, Carpenter R, Ziegler CH. A clinical perspective on cochlear dead regions: intelligibility of speech and subjective hearing aid benefit. J Am Ac Audiol. 2005;16(8):600-13.
8. Hornsby BWY, Dundas JA. Factors affecting outcomes on the TEN (SPL) test in adults with hearing loss. J Am Ac Audiol. 1009;20(4):251-63.
9. Cox RM, Alexander GC, Johnson J, Rivera I. Coclear dead regions in typical hearing aid candidates: prevalence and implications for use of high-frequency speech cues. Ear Hear. 2011;32(3):339-48.
10. Eguti EY. Identificação das zonas mortas na cóclea utilizando a técnica do mascaramento com ruído branco [tese]. São Paulo (SP): Universidade federal de São Paulo; 2002.
11. Ching TY, Dillon H, Byrne D. Speech recognition of hearing-impaired listeners: predictions from audibility and the limited role of high-frequency amplification. J Acoust Soc Am. 1998;103(2):1128-40.
12. Baer T, Moore BCJ, Kluk K. Effects of low pass filtering on the intelligibility of speech in quite for people with and without dead regions at high frequencies. J Acoust Soc Am. 2002;110(2):1164-74.
13. Vickers DA, Moore BCJ, Baer T. Effects of lowpass filtering on the intelligibility of speech in quiet for people with and without dead regions at high frequencies. J Acoust Soc Am. 2001;110(2):1164-75.
14. Glista D, Scollie S, Bagatto M, Seewald R, Parsa V, Johnson A. Evaluation of nonlinear frequency compression: clinical outcomes. Int Jour Audiol. 2009;48(9):632-44.
15. Wolfe J, John A, Schafer E, Nyffeler M, Boretzki M, Caraway T. Evaluation of nonlinear frequency compression for school-age children with moderate to moderately severe hearing loss. J Am Acad Audiol. 2010;21(10):618-28.
16. Baskent D, Shannon RV. Frequency transposition around dead regions simulated with a noiseband vocoder. J Acoust Soc Am. 2006;119(2):1156-63.
17. Robinson JD, Baer T, Moore BC. J. Using transposition to improve consonante discrimination and detection for listeners with severe high frequency hearing loss. Int Journ Audiol. 2007;46(6):293-308.
18. Fraga FJ, Prates LPCS, Iorio MCM. Frequency Compression/Transposition of Fricative Consonants for the Hearing Impaired with High-Frequency Dead Regions. Proceedings of the 9th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech); 2008 Sep 22-26; Bresbane, AUS. 2008.
19. Fullgrabe C, Baer C, Moore BCJ. Effect of linear and warped spectral transposition on consonant identification by normal-hearing listeners with a simulated dead region. Int Journ Audiol. 2010;49(6):420-33.
20. Robinson JD, Stainsby TH, Baer T, Moore BCJ. Evaluation of a frequency transposition algorithm using wearable hearing aids. Int Journ Audiol. 2009;48(6):384-93.
21. Organização Mundial da Saúde (OMS/WHO). [Homepage na Internet]. [acesso em: 2012 jun 11). Disponível em: http://www.who.int/en/.
22. Lloyd LL, Kaplan H. Audiometric interpretation: a manual of basic audiometry. Baltimore: University Park Press, 1978.
23. Silman S, Silverman CA. Auditory diagnostics: principles and applications. San Diego: Singular, 1997.
24. Folstein MF, Folstein SE, Mchugh PR. Mini-mental state. A practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res. 1975;12(3):189-98.
25. Moore BCJ. Dead region in the cochlea: diagnosis, perceptual consequences and implications for the fitting of hearing aids. Trends amplif. 2001;5(1):34.
26. Costa MJ. Listas de sentenças em português: apresentação de estratégias de aplicação na audiologia. Santa Maria: Pallotti.1998.
27. Moore BCJ, Huss M, Vickers DA, Glasberg BR, Alcantara JI. A test for diagnosis of dead regions in the cochlea. Br J Audiol. 2000;34(4):205-24.
28. Levitt H, Rabiner LR. Use of a sequential strategy in intelligibility testing. J Acoust Soc Am. 1967;42(3):609-12.
29. Costa MJ, Santos SN, Lessa AH, Mezzomo CL. Nova proposta de cálculo do índice percentual de reconhecimento de sentenças. CoDAS. No prelo 2014.
30. Henriques MO, Miranda EC, Costa MJ. Limiares de reconhecimento de sentenças no ruído, em campo livre: valores de referência para adultos normo-ouvintes. Rev Bras Otorrinolaringol. 2008;74(2):188-92.
31. Bohnert A, Nyffeler M, Kelmann A. Advantages of a non-linear frequency compression algorithm in noise. Eur Arc Otorhinolaryngol. 2010;267(7):1045-53.
32. Simpson A, Hersbach AA, Mcdermott HJ. Frequency-compression outcomes in listeners with steeply sloping audiograms. Int J Audiol. 2006;45(11):619-29.
33. Kuk F, Keenan D, Korhonen P, Lau CC. Efficacy of linear frequency transposition on consonant identification in quiet and in noise. J Am Acad Audiol. 2009;20(8):465-79.
34. Wolfe J, John A, Schafer E, Nyffeler M, Boretzki M, Caraway T et al. Long-term effects of non-linear frequency compression for children with moderate hearing loss. Int J Audiol. 2011;50(6):396-404.
35. Janse E. Processing of fast speech by elderly listeners. J Acoust Soc Am. 2009;125(4):2361-73.
36. Gonçales AS, Cury MCL. Avaliação de dois testes auditivos centrais em idosos sem queixas. Braz J Otorhinolaryngol. 2011;77(1):24-32.
37. Mackersie CL, Crocker TL, Davis RA. Limiting high-frequency hearing aid gain in listeners with and without suspected cochlear dead regions. J Am Acad Audiol. 2004;15(7):498-507.
38. Martin RL. How much do you amplify a severely damaged zone? Hear J. 2001;54(4):88-90.
39. Turner CW, Hurtig RR. Proportional frequency compression of speech for listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. J Acoust Soc Am. 1999;106(2):877-86.
40. Allum-Mecklenburg D, Babighian G. Cochlear performance as a indicator of auditory plasticity in humans. In: Salvi RJ, Henderson D, Fiorino F, Colletti V., editors. Auditory system plasticity and regeneration. New York: Thieme Medical Publishers; 1996. p. 395-404.
Submetido em:
20/02/2014
Aceito em:
18/05/2014
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Mendeley
Email