SS07: PSYCHOACOUSTICS, SPEECH PERCEPTION AND AUDITORY SIGNAL PROCESSING

PROCESSING OF TEMPORAL FINE STRUCTURE INFORMATION BY HEARING-IMPAIRED LISTENERS

Christian Lorenzi

Equipe Audition (LPP CNRS-Paris 5 #8158). Dept d’Etudes Cognitives. Ecole Normale Supérieure 29 rue d’Ulm. 75005 Paris, France

Recent studies suggest that, for normal-hearing listeners, temporal fine structure (TFS) cues play a crucial role in speech identification in complex backgrounds, especially for “glimpsing” speech in the temporal dips of fluctuating backgrounds. Additional studies suggest that cochlear damage associated with mild to moderate hearing loss may severely degrade the ability to use TFS cues in speech sounds. This is consistent with the relatively preserved ability of hearing-impaired listeners to identify speech in quiet when audibility is controlled for, and the important deficits observed for these listeners when speech is masked by fluctuating background sounds. We will review this literature and present the results of recent studies aiming to quantify and predict the reception of TFS cues for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners in various listening conditions.

Email: lorenzi@psycho.univ-paris5.fr