Rosemann, Stephanie and Gießing, Carsten and Özyurt, Jale and Carroll, Rebecca and Puschmann, Sebastian and Thiel, Christiane M. (2017) The contribution of cognitive factors to individual differences in understanding noise-vocoded speech in young and older adults. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 11. ISSN 1662-5161

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Abstract

Noise-vocoded speech is commonly used to simulate the sensation after cochlear implantation as it consists of spectrally degraded speech. High individual variability exists in learning to understand both noise-vocoded speech and speech perceived through a cochlear implant (CI). This variability is partly ascribed to differing cognitive abilities like working memory, verbal skills or attention. Although clinically highly relevant, up to now, no consensus has been achieved about which cognitive factors exactly predict the intelligibility of speech in noise-vocoded situations in healthy subjects or in patients after cochlear implantation. We aimed to establish a test battery that can be used to predict speech understanding in patients prior to receiving a CI. Young and old healthy listeners completed a noise-vocoded speech test in addition to cognitive tests tapping on verbal memory, working memory, lexicon and retrieval skills as well as cognitive flexibility and attention. Partial-least-squares analysis revealed that six variables were important to significantly predict vocoded-speech performance. These were the ability to perceive visually degraded speech tested by the Text Reception Threshold, vocabulary size assessed with the Multiple Choice Word Test, working memory gauged with the Operation Span Test, verbal learning and recall of the Verbal Learning and Retention Test and task switching abilities tested by the Comprehensive Trail-Making Test. Thus, these cognitive abilities explain individual differences in noise-vocoded speech understanding and should be considered when aiming to predict hearing-aid outcome.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Publiziert mit Hilfe des DFG-geförderten Open Access-Publikationsfonds der Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	vocoded speech, working memory, vocabulary size, verbal learning, text reception threshold
Subjects:	Science and mathematics > Physics Technology, medicine, applied sciences > Medicine and health
Divisions:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Department of Psychology
Date Deposited:	26 Sep 2017 11:06
Last Modified:	22 Nov 2017 12:10
URI:	https://oops.uni-oldenburg.de/id/eprint/3311
URN:	urn:nbn:de:gbv:715-oops-33920
DOI:	10.3389/fnhum.2017.00294
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