Effects of Expanding Envelope Fluctuations on Consonant Perception in Hearing-Impaired Listeners
This study examined the perceptual consequences of three speech enhancement schemes based on multiband nonlinear expansion of temporal envelope fluctuations between 10 and 20 Hz: (a) “idealized” envelope expansion of the speech before the addition of stationary background noise, (b) envelope expansi...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2018-05-01
|
| Series: | Trends in Hearing |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216518775293 |
| _version_ | 1819171554767929344 |
|---|---|
| author | Alan Wiinberg Johannes Zaar Torsten Dau |
| author_facet | Alan Wiinberg Johannes Zaar Torsten Dau |
| author_sort | Alan Wiinberg |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study examined the perceptual consequences of three speech enhancement schemes based on multiband nonlinear expansion of temporal envelope fluctuations between 10 and 20 Hz: (a) “idealized” envelope expansion of the speech before the addition of stationary background noise, (b) envelope expansion of the noisy speech, and (c) envelope expansion of only those time-frequency segments of the noisy speech that exhibited signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) above −10 dB. Linear processing was considered as a reference condition. The performance was evaluated by measuring consonant recognition and consonant confusions in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners using consonant-vowel nonsense syllables presented in background noise. Envelope expansion of the noisy speech showed no significant effect on the overall consonant recognition performance relative to linear processing. In contrast, SNR-based envelope expansion of the noisy speech improved the overall consonant recognition performance equivalent to a 1- to 2-dB improvement in SNR, mainly by improving the recognition of some of the stop consonants. The effect of the SNR-based envelope expansion was similar to the effect of envelope-expanding the clean speech before the addition of noise. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T19:53:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-276f654223c44744bc1e88cab7f1a2ae |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2331-2165 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T19:53:08Z |
| publishDate | 2018-05-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Trends in Hearing |
| spelling | doaj.art-276f654223c44744bc1e88cab7f1a2ae2022-12-21T18:14:29ZengSAGE PublishingTrends in Hearing2331-21652018-05-012210.1177/2331216518775293Effects of Expanding Envelope Fluctuations on Consonant Perception in Hearing-Impaired ListenersAlan WiinbergJohannes ZaarTorsten DauThis study examined the perceptual consequences of three speech enhancement schemes based on multiband nonlinear expansion of temporal envelope fluctuations between 10 and 20 Hz: (a) “idealized” envelope expansion of the speech before the addition of stationary background noise, (b) envelope expansion of the noisy speech, and (c) envelope expansion of only those time-frequency segments of the noisy speech that exhibited signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) above −10 dB. Linear processing was considered as a reference condition. The performance was evaluated by measuring consonant recognition and consonant confusions in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners using consonant-vowel nonsense syllables presented in background noise. Envelope expansion of the noisy speech showed no significant effect on the overall consonant recognition performance relative to linear processing. In contrast, SNR-based envelope expansion of the noisy speech improved the overall consonant recognition performance equivalent to a 1- to 2-dB improvement in SNR, mainly by improving the recognition of some of the stop consonants. The effect of the SNR-based envelope expansion was similar to the effect of envelope-expanding the clean speech before the addition of noise.https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216518775293 |
| spellingShingle | Alan Wiinberg Johannes Zaar Torsten Dau Effects of Expanding Envelope Fluctuations on Consonant Perception in Hearing-Impaired Listeners Trends in Hearing |
| title | Effects of Expanding Envelope Fluctuations on Consonant Perception in Hearing-Impaired Listeners |
| title_full | Effects of Expanding Envelope Fluctuations on Consonant Perception in Hearing-Impaired Listeners |
| title_fullStr | Effects of Expanding Envelope Fluctuations on Consonant Perception in Hearing-Impaired Listeners |
| title_full_unstemmed | Effects of Expanding Envelope Fluctuations on Consonant Perception in Hearing-Impaired Listeners |
| title_short | Effects of Expanding Envelope Fluctuations on Consonant Perception in Hearing-Impaired Listeners |
| title_sort | effects of expanding envelope fluctuations on consonant perception in hearing impaired listeners |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216518775293 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alanwiinberg effectsofexpandingenvelopefluctuationsonconsonantperceptioninhearingimpairedlisteners AT johanneszaar effectsofexpandingenvelopefluctuationsonconsonantperceptioninhearingimpairedlisteners AT torstendau effectsofexpandingenvelopefluctuationsonconsonantperceptioninhearingimpairedlisteners |