TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial hearing and functional auditory skills in children with unilateral hearing loss
AU - Corbin, Nicole E.
AU - Buss, Emily
AU - Leibold, Lori J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was conducted as part of a doctoral dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Feedback and advice were provided by John Grose, Martha Mundy, Jackson Roush, Rich Freyman, Dawna Lewis, and Ryan McCreery. Funding for this study was provided by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (Grant R01 DC011038, Leibold; Grant R01 DC000397, Buss; Grant F32 DC016188, Corbin), the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders (PhD Scholarship), the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation (New Century Scholars Doctoral Scholarship; Graduate Student Scholarship), and Sertoma (student scholarship).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2021/11
Y1 - 2021/11
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this study was to characterize spatial hearing abilities of children with longstanding unilateral hearing loss (UHL). UHL was expected to negatively impact children’s sound source localization and masked speech recognition, particularly when the target and masker were separated in space. Spatial release from masking (SRM) in the presence of a two-talker speech masker was expected to predict functional auditory performance as assessed by parent report. Method: Participants were 5-to 14-year-olds with sensorineural or mixed UHL, age-matched children with normal hearing (NH), and adults with NH. Sound source localization was assessed on the horizontal plane (−90° to 90°), with noise that was either all-pass, low-pass, high-pass, or an unpredictable mixture. Speech recognition thresholds were measured in the sound field for sentences presented in two-talker speech or speechshaped noise. Target speech was always presented from 0°; the masker was either colocated with the target or spatially separated at ±90°. Parents of children with UHL rated their children’s functional auditory performance in everyday environments via questionnaire. Results: Sound source localization was poorer for children with UHL than those with NH. Children with UHL also derived less SRM than those with NH, with increased masking for some conditions. Effects of UHL were larger in the two-talker than the noise masker, and SRM in twotalker speech increased with age for both groups of children. Children with UHL whose parents reported greater functional difficulties achieved less SRM when either masker was on the side of the better-hearing ear. Conclusions: Children with UHL are clearly at a disadvantage compared with children with NH for both sound source localization and masked speech recognition with spatial separation. Parents’ report of their children’s real-world communication abilities suggests that spatial hearing plays an important role in outcomes for children with UHL.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of this study was to characterize spatial hearing abilities of children with longstanding unilateral hearing loss (UHL). UHL was expected to negatively impact children’s sound source localization and masked speech recognition, particularly when the target and masker were separated in space. Spatial release from masking (SRM) in the presence of a two-talker speech masker was expected to predict functional auditory performance as assessed by parent report. Method: Participants were 5-to 14-year-olds with sensorineural or mixed UHL, age-matched children with normal hearing (NH), and adults with NH. Sound source localization was assessed on the horizontal plane (−90° to 90°), with noise that was either all-pass, low-pass, high-pass, or an unpredictable mixture. Speech recognition thresholds were measured in the sound field for sentences presented in two-talker speech or speechshaped noise. Target speech was always presented from 0°; the masker was either colocated with the target or spatially separated at ±90°. Parents of children with UHL rated their children’s functional auditory performance in everyday environments via questionnaire. Results: Sound source localization was poorer for children with UHL than those with NH. Children with UHL also derived less SRM than those with NH, with increased masking for some conditions. Effects of UHL were larger in the two-talker than the noise masker, and SRM in twotalker speech increased with age for both groups of children. Children with UHL whose parents reported greater functional difficulties achieved less SRM when either masker was on the side of the better-hearing ear. Conclusions: Children with UHL are clearly at a disadvantage compared with children with NH for both sound source localization and masked speech recognition with spatial separation. Parents’ report of their children’s real-world communication abilities suggests that spatial hearing plays an important role in outcomes for children with UHL.
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U2 - 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00081
DO - 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00081
M3 - Article
C2 - 34609204
AN - SCOPUS:85121753874
VL - 64
SP - 4495
EP - 4512
JO - Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders
JF - Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders
SN - 1092-4388
IS - 11
ER -