The Relationship Between Extended High-Frequency Hearing, Speech-in-Noise Perception, and Auditory Working Memory: A Normative Study
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Date
2022-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
The most difficult communication environment (e.g., listening and remembering what was said) for adults is listening to speech in background noise. This poses the question of what factors can explain the reason for difficulties hearing speech-in-noise. Extended high-frequency (EHF) thresholds assess hearing in a higher frequency range than standard audiometric testing and can be used to assess cochlear health. It was hypothesized that poorer thresholds in the EHF range would be correlated with poorer speech-in-noise performance in comparison to other normal-hearing peers. Previous publications have shown that speech-in-noise performance is strongly correlated with working memory. This study also aimed to explore the interplay between auditory working memory and speech-in-noise performance and hypothesized that poorer auditory working memory capacity would be correlated with poorer speech-in-noise performance in comparison to other normal-hearing peers. In full, this study hypothesized that variation in speech-in-noise performance of normal hearers would be driven by EHF thresholds and auditory working memory capacity, such that those with poorer speech-in-noise performance would have poorer EHF thresholds and auditory working memory capacity, although within normal limits. Sixteen young adults with normal standard audiometric thresholds participated in this study. Results showed a significant positive relationship between EHF thresholds and speech-in-noise performance, confirming that poorer EHF thresholds were associated with poorer speech-in-noise performance. Trends were also seen amongst speech-in-noise performance and auditory working memory, suggesting that poorer auditory working memory capacity was associated with poorer speech-in-noise performance. Results from this study were true to the original hypotheses – poorer speech-in-noise performance in normal hearing adults was associated with poorer EHF thresholds and poorer auditory working memory capacity.
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Keywords
Extended High-Frequency Hearing, Speech-in-noise Performance, Auditory working memory, Hearing Difficulties