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Influence of surgical and N95 face masks on speech perception and listening effort in noise

Daily-life conversation relies on speech perception in quiet and noise. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have become mandatory in many situations. Acoustic attenuation of sound pressure by the mask tissue reduces speech perception ability, especially in noisy situations. Masks also can i...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rahne, Torsten, Fröhlich, Laura, Plontke, Stefan, Wagner, Luise
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8248731/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34197513
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253874
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author Rahne, Torsten
Fröhlich, Laura
Plontke, Stefan
Wagner, Luise
author_facet Rahne, Torsten
Fröhlich, Laura
Plontke, Stefan
Wagner, Luise
author_sort Rahne, Torsten
collection PubMed
description Daily-life conversation relies on speech perception in quiet and noise. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have become mandatory in many situations. Acoustic attenuation of sound pressure by the mask tissue reduces speech perception ability, especially in noisy situations. Masks also can impede the process of speech comprehension by concealing the movements of the mouth, interfering with lip reading. In this prospective observational, cross-sectional study including 17 participants with normal hearing, we measured the influence of acoustic attenuation caused by medical face masks (mouth and nose protection) according to EN 14683 and of N95 masks according to EN 1149 (EN 14683) on the speech recognition threshold and listening effort in various types of background noise. Averaged over all noise signals, a surgical mask significantly reduced the speech perception threshold in noise was by 1.6 dB (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0, 2.1) and an N95 mask reduced it significantly by 2.7 dB (95% CI, 2.2, 3.2). Use of a surgical mask did not significantly increase the 50% listening effort signal-to-noise ratio (increase of 0.58 dB; 95% CI, 0.4, 1.5), but use of an N95 mask did so significantly, by 2.2 dB (95% CI, 1.2, 3.1). In acoustic measures, mask tissue reduced amplitudes by up to 8 dB at frequencies above 1 kHz, whereas no reduction was observed below 1 kHz. We conclude that face masks reduce speech perception and increase listening effort in different noise signals. Together with additional interference because of impeded lip reading, the compound effect of face masks could have a relevant impact on daily life communication even in those with normal hearing.
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spelling pubmed-82487312021-07-09 Influence of surgical and N95 face masks on speech perception and listening effort in noise Rahne, Torsten Fröhlich, Laura Plontke, Stefan Wagner, Luise PLoS One Research Article Daily-life conversation relies on speech perception in quiet and noise. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have become mandatory in many situations. Acoustic attenuation of sound pressure by the mask tissue reduces speech perception ability, especially in noisy situations. Masks also can impede the process of speech comprehension by concealing the movements of the mouth, interfering with lip reading. In this prospective observational, cross-sectional study including 17 participants with normal hearing, we measured the influence of acoustic attenuation caused by medical face masks (mouth and nose protection) according to EN 14683 and of N95 masks according to EN 1149 (EN 14683) on the speech recognition threshold and listening effort in various types of background noise. Averaged over all noise signals, a surgical mask significantly reduced the speech perception threshold in noise was by 1.6 dB (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.0, 2.1) and an N95 mask reduced it significantly by 2.7 dB (95% CI, 2.2, 3.2). Use of a surgical mask did not significantly increase the 50% listening effort signal-to-noise ratio (increase of 0.58 dB; 95% CI, 0.4, 1.5), but use of an N95 mask did so significantly, by 2.2 dB (95% CI, 1.2, 3.1). In acoustic measures, mask tissue reduced amplitudes by up to 8 dB at frequencies above 1 kHz, whereas no reduction was observed below 1 kHz. We conclude that face masks reduce speech perception and increase listening effort in different noise signals. Together with additional interference because of impeded lip reading, the compound effect of face masks could have a relevant impact on daily life communication even in those with normal hearing. Public Library of Science 2021-07-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8248731/ /pubmed/34197513 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253874 Text en © 2021 Rahne et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rahne, Torsten
Fröhlich, Laura
Plontke, Stefan
Wagner, Luise
Influence of surgical and N95 face masks on speech perception and listening effort in noise
title Influence of surgical and N95 face masks on speech perception and listening effort in noise
title_full Influence of surgical and N95 face masks on speech perception and listening effort in noise
title_fullStr Influence of surgical and N95 face masks on speech perception and listening effort in noise
title_full_unstemmed Influence of surgical and N95 face masks on speech perception and listening effort in noise
title_short Influence of surgical and N95 face masks on speech perception and listening effort in noise
title_sort influence of surgical and n95 face masks on speech perception and listening effort in noise
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8248731/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34197513
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253874
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