Verification of an Amplification Strategy to Enhance Soft Speech for Adults With Severe-to-Profound Hearing Loss.
Purpose: This study investigated the effects of a soft speech enhancement algorithm on distant speech perception for adults with severe-to-profound hearing loss (SPHL), examining speech intelligibility, listening effort, and sound quality. Method: Participants were 16 Mandarin-speaking adults (13 me...
| Publicado en: | American Journal of Audiology Vol. 34; no. 4; pp. 955 - 966 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , |
| Formato: | clinical trial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Dec2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=190286337&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 190286337 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 10590889 5KS jtl: American Journal of Audiology issn: 10590889 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2025 vid: 34 iid: 4 pid: 42 pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association place: Rockville, Maryland artinfo: ui: 190286337 190286337 190286337 10.1044/2025_AJA-25-00059 190286337 ppf: 955 ppct: 11 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Verification of an Amplification Strategy to Enhance Soft Speech for Adults With Severe-to-Profound Hearing Loss. aug: au: Huang, Hsuan Yun Tian, Xin Latzel, Matthias Timmer, Barbra H. B. Guan, Jingjing affil: Sonova (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., China sug: subj: Hearing Loss, Sensorineural In Adulthood Assistive Listening Systems Hearing Aids Signal Processing, Computer Assisted Algorithms Speech Perception Evaluation Speech Intelligibility Evaluation Listening Effort Evaluation Human Male Female Adult Middle Age Aged Persons with Hearing Disabilities China Single-Blind Studies Experimental Studies Comparative Studies Clinical Trials Audiometry, Pure-Tone Acoustic Impedance Tests Visual Analog Scaling Paired T-Tests Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test Post Hoc Analysis Descriptive Statistics Data Analysis Software Speech Discrimination Tests Confidence Intervals Funding Source Rehabilitation of Persons with Hearing Loss Clinical Assessment Tools Program Evaluation Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Aged: 65+ years Male Female ab: Purpose: This study investigated the effects of a soft speech enhancement algorithm on distant speech perception for adults with severe-to-profound hearing loss (SPHL), examining speech intelligibility, listening effort, and sound quality. Method: Participants were 16 Mandarin-speaking adults (13 men, 3 women; Mage = 58 years) with symmetrical severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss. They had at least 1 year of hearing aid experience. A within-subject experimental design compared two hearing aid conditions: with the Speech Enhancer algorithm activated and deactivated. Speech intelligibility was assessed using the Mandarin Chinese matrix sentence test at individual speech reception thresholds. Subjective listening effort was measured using a categorical rating scale for speech presented at three distances (2, 4, and 8 m). Sound quality ratings were collected for loudness, speech understanding, and overall impression using a visual analog scale. Results: Activation of the speech enhancement algorithm led to a notable increase in speech intelligibility from 45% to 67%. Subjective listening effort decreased significantly with the algorithm activated at all distances, with greater benefits observed at farther distances. Similarly, sound quality ratings were significantly higher with the algorithm on for all attributes across all distances, with the largest improvements in overall impression ratings at greater distances. Conclusions: The soft speech enhancement algorithm significantly improved speech intelligibility, reduced listening effort, and enhanced sound quality for distant speech perception in Mandarin-speaking adults with SPHL. These findings suggest that targeted signal processing for soft speech can provide substantial benefits for individuals with SPHL, including speakers of tonal languages, potentially improving communication in challenging listening situations. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: clinical trial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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