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Spectral Dynamics and Speech Understanding by Hearing Impaired People

Primary Purpose

Hearing Loss, Sensorineural

Status
Completed
Phase
Not Applicable
Locations
United States
Study Type
Interventional
Intervention
Acoustic distortion of speech
Sponsored by
VA Office of Research and Development
About
Eligibility
Locations
Arms
Outcomes
Full info

About this trial

This is an interventional other trial for Hearing Loss, Sensorineural focused on measuring Hearing, Hearing Loss, sensorineural, Speech Perception

Eligibility Criteria

18 Years - 65 Years (Adult, Older Adult)All SexesAccepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion Criteria:

  • individuals with hearing thresholds of 20 dB HL or better at all octave frequencies between 250 Hz and 4000 Hz
  • or, individuals with bilateral sensorineural hearing losses with thresholds between 25 and 70 dB HL and no losses greater than 70 dB HL at frequencies of 4000 Hz or below

Exclusion Criteria:

  • a conductive hearing impairment or other otological pathology
  • hearing thresholds greater than 70 dB HL at any frequencies of 4000 Hz or below or pure-tone averages (averaged across 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz) of greater than 65 dB HL
  • bilateral differences greater than 20 dB at any frequency below 4000 Hz
  • an inability to complete the experimental tasks

Sites / Locations

  • VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR

Arms of the Study

Arm 1

Arm 2

Arm 3

Arm Type

Active Comparator

Active Comparator

Active Comparator

Arm Label

Younger normally-hearing listeners

Hearing-impaired listeners

Older normally-hearing listeners

Arm Description

Participants with auditory thresholds within the normal limits. age between 18 and 35 individuals with hearing thresholds of 20 dB HL or better at all octave frequencies between 250 Hz and 4000 Hz Acoustic distortion of speech

individuals with bilateral sensorineural hearing losses with thresholds between 25 and 70 dB HL and no losses greater than 70 dB HL at frequencies of 4000 Hz or below age 18 to 65 Acoustic distortion of speech

Participants with auditory thresholds within the normal limits. age between 36 and 65 individuals with hearing thresholds of 20 dB HL or better at all octave frequencies between 250 Hz and 4000 Hz Acoustic distortion of speech

Outcomes

Primary Outcome Measures

Percent Correct Words Identified
The experimental approach compares speech identification performance among younger, normally-hearing listeners, older normally-hearing listeners and hearing-impaired listeners. Tasks will be carried out in quiet and in the presence of continuous, speech-shaped background noise. The investigators compared the understanding of unprocessed stimuli with 1) time-compressed stimuli, 2) time-compressed stimuli expanded in time via gaps and 3) uncompressed stimuli where portions of the signal were replaced with silence. Experimental metrics were percentage of correct/incorrect speech identification in each listening condition.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Full Information

First Posted
May 20, 2013
Last Updated
April 24, 2018
Sponsor
VA Office of Research and Development
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1. Study Identification

Unique Protocol Identification Number
NCT01867515
Brief Title
Spectral Dynamics and Speech Understanding by Hearing Impaired People
Official Title
Spectral Dynamics and Speech Understanding by Hearing Impaired People
Study Type
Interventional

2. Study Status

Record Verification Date
April 2018
Overall Recruitment Status
Completed
Study Start Date
August 2013 (undefined)
Primary Completion Date
September 2016 (Actual)
Study Completion Date
September 2016 (Actual)

3. Sponsor/Collaborators

Responsible Party, by Official Title
Sponsor
Name of the Sponsor
VA Office of Research and Development

4. Oversight

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Drug Product
No
Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated Device Product
No
Data Monitoring Committee
No

5. Study Description

Brief Summary
The purpose of this program of research is to understand the perception of the dynamic spectral properties of speech by hearing-impaired listeners, with the long-term goal of improving speech understanding by these individuals in adverse listening conditions. The proposed research compares the performance of normally-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners on measures of speech understanding in the presence of different types of signal distortion and speech understanding of signals with enhanced spectral dynamics. A computational model based on the amount of potential information available in speech will be used to quantify differences in speech intelligibility due to hearing status and stimulus characteristics.
Detailed Description
This is a behavioral study of human auditory perception. Each experiment in this study involves prospective data collection from three types of listeners. The experimental listeners will be people with sensorineural hearing loss and the control listeners will either be subjects with normal hearing or normal-hearing listeners for whom hearing loss will be simulated through the use of a spectrally-shaped broadband noise. The tasks of the subjects in this study involve either listening to synthesized sounds over earphones while seated comfortably in a sound-treated booth, and making responses indicating the subject's auditory perception of these sounds by touching specific areas on a touch-screen terminal; or, listening to recorded, acoustically modified syllables, words, or sentences over earphones and making responses indicating the subject's identification.

6. Conditions and Keywords

Primary Disease or Condition Being Studied in the Trial, or the Focus of the Study
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural
Keywords
Hearing, Hearing Loss, sensorineural, Speech Perception

7. Study Design

Primary Purpose
Other
Study Phase
Not Applicable
Interventional Study Model
Single Group Assignment
Masking
None (Open Label)
Allocation
Non-Randomized
Enrollment
50 (Actual)

8. Arms, Groups, and Interventions

Arm Title
Younger normally-hearing listeners
Arm Type
Active Comparator
Arm Description
Participants with auditory thresholds within the normal limits. age between 18 and 35 individuals with hearing thresholds of 20 dB HL or better at all octave frequencies between 250 Hz and 4000 Hz Acoustic distortion of speech
Arm Title
Hearing-impaired listeners
Arm Type
Active Comparator
Arm Description
individuals with bilateral sensorineural hearing losses with thresholds between 25 and 70 dB HL and no losses greater than 70 dB HL at frequencies of 4000 Hz or below age 18 to 65 Acoustic distortion of speech
Arm Title
Older normally-hearing listeners
Arm Type
Active Comparator
Arm Description
Participants with auditory thresholds within the normal limits. age between 36 and 65 individuals with hearing thresholds of 20 dB HL or better at all octave frequencies between 250 Hz and 4000 Hz Acoustic distortion of speech
Intervention Type
Other
Intervention Name(s)
Acoustic distortion of speech
Primary Outcome Measure Information:
Title
Percent Correct Words Identified
Description
The experimental approach compares speech identification performance among younger, normally-hearing listeners, older normally-hearing listeners and hearing-impaired listeners. Tasks will be carried out in quiet and in the presence of continuous, speech-shaped background noise. The investigators compared the understanding of unprocessed stimuli with 1) time-compressed stimuli, 2) time-compressed stimuli expanded in time via gaps and 3) uncompressed stimuli where portions of the signal were replaced with silence. Experimental metrics were percentage of correct/incorrect speech identification in each listening condition.
Time Frame
average of two blocks per condition obtained over the course of up to three 2-hour visits, spaced an average of one week apart

10. Eligibility

Sex
All
Minimum Age & Unit of Time
18 Years
Maximum Age & Unit of Time
65 Years
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria: individuals with hearing thresholds of 20 dB HL or better at all octave frequencies between 250 Hz and 4000 Hz or, individuals with bilateral sensorineural hearing losses with thresholds between 25 and 70 dB HL and no losses greater than 70 dB HL at frequencies of 4000 Hz or below Exclusion Criteria: a conductive hearing impairment or other otological pathology hearing thresholds greater than 70 dB HL at any frequencies of 4000 Hz or below or pure-tone averages (averaged across 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz) of greater than 65 dB HL bilateral differences greater than 20 dB at any frequency below 4000 Hz an inability to complete the experimental tasks
Overall Study Officials:
First Name & Middle Initial & Last Name & Degree
Michelle R Molis, PhD
Organizational Affiliation
VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR
Official's Role
Principal Investigator
Facility Information:
Facility Name
VA Portland Health Care System, Portland, OR
City
Portland
State/Province
Oregon
ZIP/Postal Code
97239
Country
United States

12. IPD Sharing Statement

Plan to Share IPD
Undecided

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Spectral Dynamics and Speech Understanding by Hearing Impaired People

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