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Immediate improvement of speech-in-noise perception through multisensory stimulation via an auditory to tactile sensory substitution

BACKGROUND: Hearing loss is becoming a real social and health problem. Its prevalence in the elderly is an epidemic. The risk of developing hearing loss is also growing among younger people. If left untreated, hearing loss can perpetuate development of neurodegenerative diseases, including dementia....

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Autores principales: Cieśla, Katarzyna, Wolak, Tomasz, Lorens, Artur, Heimler, Benedetta, Skarżyński, Henryk, Amedi, Amir
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: IOS Press 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6598101/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31006700
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/RNN-190898
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author Cieśla, Katarzyna
Wolak, Tomasz
Lorens, Artur
Heimler, Benedetta
Skarżyński, Henryk
Amedi, Amir
author_facet Cieśla, Katarzyna
Wolak, Tomasz
Lorens, Artur
Heimler, Benedetta
Skarżyński, Henryk
Amedi, Amir
author_sort Cieśla, Katarzyna
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Hearing loss is becoming a real social and health problem. Its prevalence in the elderly is an epidemic. The risk of developing hearing loss is also growing among younger people. If left untreated, hearing loss can perpetuate development of neurodegenerative diseases, including dementia. Despite recent advancements in hearing aid (HA) and cochlear implant (CI) technologies, hearing impaired users still encounter significant practical and social challenges, with or without aids. In particular, they all struggle with understanding speech in challenging acoustic environments, especially in presence of a competing speaker. OBJECTIVES: In the current proof-of-concept study we tested whether multisensory stimulation, pairing audition and a minimal-size touch device would improve intelligibility of speech in noise. METHODS: To this aim we developed an audio-to-tactile sensory substitution device (SSD) transforming low-frequency speech signals into tactile vibrations delivered on two finger tips. Based on the inverse effectiveness law, i.e., multisensory enhancement is strongest when signal-to-noise ratio is lowest between senses, we embedded non-native language stimuli in speech-like noise and paired it with a low-frequency input conveyed through touch. RESULTS: We found immediate and robust improvement in speech recognition (i.e. in the Signal-To-Noise-ratio) in the multisensory condition without any training, at a group level as well as in every participant. The reported improvement at the group-level of 6 dB was indeed major considering that an increase of 10 dB represents a doubling of the perceived loudness. CONCLUSIONS: These results are especially relevant when compared to previous SSD studies showing effects in behavior only after a demanding cognitive training. We discuss the implications of our results for development of SSDs and of specific rehabilitation programs for the hearing impaired either using or not using HAs or CIs. We also discuss the potential application of such a set-up for sense augmentation, such as when learning a new language.
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spelling pubmed-65981012019-07-01 Immediate improvement of speech-in-noise perception through multisensory stimulation via an auditory to tactile sensory substitution Cieśla, Katarzyna Wolak, Tomasz Lorens, Artur Heimler, Benedetta Skarżyński, Henryk Amedi, Amir Restor Neurol Neurosci Research Article BACKGROUND: Hearing loss is becoming a real social and health problem. Its prevalence in the elderly is an epidemic. The risk of developing hearing loss is also growing among younger people. If left untreated, hearing loss can perpetuate development of neurodegenerative diseases, including dementia. Despite recent advancements in hearing aid (HA) and cochlear implant (CI) technologies, hearing impaired users still encounter significant practical and social challenges, with or without aids. In particular, they all struggle with understanding speech in challenging acoustic environments, especially in presence of a competing speaker. OBJECTIVES: In the current proof-of-concept study we tested whether multisensory stimulation, pairing audition and a minimal-size touch device would improve intelligibility of speech in noise. METHODS: To this aim we developed an audio-to-tactile sensory substitution device (SSD) transforming low-frequency speech signals into tactile vibrations delivered on two finger tips. Based on the inverse effectiveness law, i.e., multisensory enhancement is strongest when signal-to-noise ratio is lowest between senses, we embedded non-native language stimuli in speech-like noise and paired it with a low-frequency input conveyed through touch. RESULTS: We found immediate and robust improvement in speech recognition (i.e. in the Signal-To-Noise-ratio) in the multisensory condition without any training, at a group level as well as in every participant. The reported improvement at the group-level of 6 dB was indeed major considering that an increase of 10 dB represents a doubling of the perceived loudness. CONCLUSIONS: These results are especially relevant when compared to previous SSD studies showing effects in behavior only after a demanding cognitive training. We discuss the implications of our results for development of SSDs and of specific rehabilitation programs for the hearing impaired either using or not using HAs or CIs. We also discuss the potential application of such a set-up for sense augmentation, such as when learning a new language. IOS Press 2019-04-16 /pmc/articles/PMC6598101/ /pubmed/31006700 http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/RNN-190898 Text en © 2019 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Cieśla, Katarzyna
Wolak, Tomasz
Lorens, Artur
Heimler, Benedetta
Skarżyński, Henryk
Amedi, Amir
Immediate improvement of speech-in-noise perception through multisensory stimulation via an auditory to tactile sensory substitution
title Immediate improvement of speech-in-noise perception through multisensory stimulation via an auditory to tactile sensory substitution
title_full Immediate improvement of speech-in-noise perception through multisensory stimulation via an auditory to tactile sensory substitution
title_fullStr Immediate improvement of speech-in-noise perception through multisensory stimulation via an auditory to tactile sensory substitution
title_full_unstemmed Immediate improvement of speech-in-noise perception through multisensory stimulation via an auditory to tactile sensory substitution
title_short Immediate improvement of speech-in-noise perception through multisensory stimulation via an auditory to tactile sensory substitution
title_sort immediate improvement of speech-in-noise perception through multisensory stimulation via an auditory to tactile sensory substitution
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6598101/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31006700
http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/RNN-190898
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