Perception of Speech in Context by Listeners With Healthy and Impaired Hearing

NCT06465979 | Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: 4824R01DC020303
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 680
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

Recognition of speech sounds is accomplished through the use of adjacent sounds in time, in what is termed acoustic context. The frequency and temporal properties of these contextual sounds play a large role in recognition of human speech. Historically, most research on both speech perception and sound perception in general examine sounds out-of-context, or presented individually. Further, these studies have been conducted independently of each other with little connection across labs, across sounds, etc. These approaches slow the progress in understanding how listeners with hearing difficulties use context to recognize speech and how their hearing aids and/or cochlear implants might be modified to improve their perception. This research has three main goals. First, the investigators predict that performance in speech sound recognition experiments will be related when testing the same speech frequencies or the same moments in time, but that performance will not be related in further comparisons across speech frequencies or at different moments in time. Second, the investigators predict that adding background noise will make this contextual speech perception more difficult, and that these difficulties will be more severe for listeners with hearing loss. Third, the investigators predict that cochlear implant users will also use surrounding sounds in their speech recognition, but with key differences than healthy-hearing listeners owing to the sound processing done by their implants. In tandem with these goals, the investigators will use computer models to simulate how neurons respond to speech sounds individually and when surrounded by other sounds.

Conditions

Hearing; Hearing Loss

Keywords

speech perception; hearing

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Speech categorization

  The participant sits inside a double-walled sound booth. They are seated at a table that contains a computer monitor and a mouse. A single utterance is played over headphones or through a loudspeaker directly in front, and the participant indicates what they thought the utterance was by selecting among various options on the screen using the mouse. During a single block of trials there are between 60 and 160 sounds, depending on the exact experiment. Ordering of stimuli within the block is randomized. That testing block may be repeated multiple times so that the proportion of responses for each sound-response pair can be estimated reliably and precisely. Completion and advancement of trials is at the participant's own pace. Each testing block takes between 4 and 15 minutes.

  "Post-treatment" where "treatment" is the systematic manipulation of speech sounds. Speech categorization will be evaluated during the main part of the testing. Outcomes will be assessed and data reported through study completion, an average of 1 year

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Speech recognition

  "Post-treatment" where "treatment" is the systematic manipulation of speech sounds. Word recognition will be evaluated during the main part of the testing. Outcomes will be assessed and data reported through study completion, an average of 1 year

• Audiometric threshold testing

  Baseline

Study Arms (1)

Speech perception experiments

EXPERIMENTAL

This arm involves experiments wherein participants listen to speech played at comfortable volumes and respond by indicating what they heard either in open-ended form or by choosing among a set of options displayed on a computer.

Behavioral: Speech Manipulation

Interventions

Speech Manipulation BEHAVIORAL

The acoustic properties of speech sounds will be modified in two main ways. The first way is to introduce gradual changes to the perceived articulation of the target speech sound, such as changing from "sh" to "s" by various types of signal processing and filtering. The second type of change is to modify acoustic properties of the sounds that immediately precede the target speech sound, such as changing the speaking rate or its frequencies composition.

Speech perception experiments

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 65 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Be able to recognize spoken words in English
• Be a competent speaker of north American English
• Be an adult between the age of 18 to 65 years
• Have normal audiometric thresholds below 25 decibels hearing loss (dB HL) at frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz OR have audiometric thresholds not exceeding 40 dB HL at frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz OR have audiometric thresholds not exceeding 55 dB HL at frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz OR use a cochlear implant
• Lack language-learning or other cognitive disabilities

You may not qualify if:

• Inability to recognize spoken words in English
• Not a competent speaker of north American English
• Be younger than 18 years of age
• Be older than 65 years of age
• Have normal audiometric thresholds exceeding 25 dB HL at frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz OR have audiometric thresholds exceeding 40 dB HL at frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz OR have audiometric thresholds exceeding 55 dB HL at frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz
• Language-learning or other cognitive disabilities

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Marquette University: lead
• National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD): collaborator

Study Sites (2)

University of Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55455, United States

RECRUITING

Marquette University

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 53233, United States

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Hearing Loss

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Hearing Disorders; Ear Diseases; Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases; Sensation Disorders; Neurologic Manifestations; Nervous System Diseases; Signs and Symptoms; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Christian Stilp, PhD

  Marquette University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Christian Stilp, PhD

CONTACT

4142881455; christian.stilp@marquette.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Associate Professor

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 13, 2024
• First Posted: June 20, 2024
• Study Start: September 19, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2027
• Last Updated: July 11, 2025

Record last verified: 2025-07

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: SAP
• Time Frame: Data will be made available to all upon acceptance of manuscripts for publication in scholarly journals. Data will be available for a period of at least 10 years or the retirement of both investigators, which is not anticipated to be less than 15 years.
• Access Criteria: Materials will be made public to all upon acceptance of manuscripts for publication in scholarly journals.

Locations

US (2)