Cargando…

Effect of face masks on speech perception in noise of individuals with hearing aids

Although several previous studies have confirmed that listeners find it difficult to perceive the speech of face-mask-wearing speakers, there has been little research into how masks affect hearing-impaired individuals using hearing aids. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effects of...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Choi, Jung Ho, Choi, Hyo Jung, Kim, Dong Hyun, Park, Ji Hye, An, Yong-Hwi, Shim, Hyun Joon
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9754666/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36532290
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.1036767
_version_ 1784851250003574784
author Choi, Jung Ho
Choi, Hyo Jung
Kim, Dong Hyun
Park, Ji Hye
An, Yong-Hwi
Shim, Hyun Joon
author_facet Choi, Jung Ho
Choi, Hyo Jung
Kim, Dong Hyun
Park, Ji Hye
An, Yong-Hwi
Shim, Hyun Joon
author_sort Choi, Jung Ho
collection PubMed
description Although several previous studies have confirmed that listeners find it difficult to perceive the speech of face-mask-wearing speakers, there has been little research into how masks affect hearing-impaired individuals using hearing aids. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effects of masks on the speech perception in noise of hearing-impaired individuals and normal-hearing individuals. We also investigated the effect of masks on the gain conferred by hearing aids. The hearing-impaired group included 24 listeners (age: M = 69.5, SD = 8.6; M:F = 13:11) who had used hearing aids in everyday life for >1 month (M = 20.7, SD = 24.0) and the normal-hearing group included 26 listeners (age: M = 57.9, SD = 11.1; M:F = 13:13). Speech perception in noise was measured under no mask–auditory-only (no-mask–AO), no mask–auditory–visual (no-mask–AV), and mask–AV conditions at five signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs; −16, −12, −8, −4, 0 dB) using five lists of 25 monosyllabic Korean words. Video clips that included a female speaker’s face and sound or the sound only were presented through a monitor and a loudspeaker located 1 m in front of the listener in a sound-attenuating booth. The degree of deterioration in speech perception caused by the mask (no-mask–AV minus mask–AV) was significantly greater for hearing-impaired vs. normal-hearing participants only at 0 dB SNR (Bonferroni’s corrected p < 0.01). When the effects of a mask on speech perception, with and without hearing aids, were compared in the hearing-impaired group, the degree of deterioration in speech perception caused by the mask was significantly reduced by the hearing aids compared with that without hearing aids at 0 and −4 dB SNR (Bonferroni’s corrected p < 0.01). The improvement conferred by hearing aids (unaided speech perception score minus aided speech perception score) was significantly greater at 0 and −4 dB SNR than at −16 dB SNR in the mask–AV group (Bonferroni’s corrected p < 0.01). These results demonstrate that hearing aids still improve speech perception when the speaker is masked, and that hearing aids partly offset the effect of a mask at relatively low noise levels.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9754666
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-97546662022-12-16 Effect of face masks on speech perception in noise of individuals with hearing aids Choi, Jung Ho Choi, Hyo Jung Kim, Dong Hyun Park, Ji Hye An, Yong-Hwi Shim, Hyun Joon Front Neurosci Neuroscience Although several previous studies have confirmed that listeners find it difficult to perceive the speech of face-mask-wearing speakers, there has been little research into how masks affect hearing-impaired individuals using hearing aids. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effects of masks on the speech perception in noise of hearing-impaired individuals and normal-hearing individuals. We also investigated the effect of masks on the gain conferred by hearing aids. The hearing-impaired group included 24 listeners (age: M = 69.5, SD = 8.6; M:F = 13:11) who had used hearing aids in everyday life for >1 month (M = 20.7, SD = 24.0) and the normal-hearing group included 26 listeners (age: M = 57.9, SD = 11.1; M:F = 13:13). Speech perception in noise was measured under no mask–auditory-only (no-mask–AO), no mask–auditory–visual (no-mask–AV), and mask–AV conditions at five signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs; −16, −12, −8, −4, 0 dB) using five lists of 25 monosyllabic Korean words. Video clips that included a female speaker’s face and sound or the sound only were presented through a monitor and a loudspeaker located 1 m in front of the listener in a sound-attenuating booth. The degree of deterioration in speech perception caused by the mask (no-mask–AV minus mask–AV) was significantly greater for hearing-impaired vs. normal-hearing participants only at 0 dB SNR (Bonferroni’s corrected p < 0.01). When the effects of a mask on speech perception, with and without hearing aids, were compared in the hearing-impaired group, the degree of deterioration in speech perception caused by the mask was significantly reduced by the hearing aids compared with that without hearing aids at 0 and −4 dB SNR (Bonferroni’s corrected p < 0.01). The improvement conferred by hearing aids (unaided speech perception score minus aided speech perception score) was significantly greater at 0 and −4 dB SNR than at −16 dB SNR in the mask–AV group (Bonferroni’s corrected p < 0.01). These results demonstrate that hearing aids still improve speech perception when the speaker is masked, and that hearing aids partly offset the effect of a mask at relatively low noise levels. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC9754666/ /pubmed/36532290 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.1036767 Text en Copyright © 2022 Choi, Choi, Kim, Park, An and Shim. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Choi, Jung Ho
Choi, Hyo Jung
Kim, Dong Hyun
Park, Ji Hye
An, Yong-Hwi
Shim, Hyun Joon
Effect of face masks on speech perception in noise of individuals with hearing aids
title Effect of face masks on speech perception in noise of individuals with hearing aids
title_full Effect of face masks on speech perception in noise of individuals with hearing aids
title_fullStr Effect of face masks on speech perception in noise of individuals with hearing aids
title_full_unstemmed Effect of face masks on speech perception in noise of individuals with hearing aids
title_short Effect of face masks on speech perception in noise of individuals with hearing aids
title_sort effect of face masks on speech perception in noise of individuals with hearing aids
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9754666/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36532290
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2022.1036767
work_keys_str_mv AT choijungho effectoffacemasksonspeechperceptioninnoiseofindividualswithhearingaids
AT choihyojung effectoffacemasksonspeechperceptioninnoiseofindividualswithhearingaids
AT kimdonghyun effectoffacemasksonspeechperceptioninnoiseofindividualswithhearingaids
AT parkjihye effectoffacemasksonspeechperceptioninnoiseofindividualswithhearingaids
AT anyonghwi effectoffacemasksonspeechperceptioninnoiseofindividualswithhearingaids
AT shimhyunjoon effectoffacemasksonspeechperceptioninnoiseofindividualswithhearingaids