Hearing Study: Sensitivity to Features of Speech Sounds

Hearing Loss, Sensorineural Clinical Trial

Official title:

Auditory Processing of Complex Sounds - Sensitivity to Chirps

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03666676
• Other study ID #: 73346
• Secondary ID: R01DC001641
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: June 9, 2020
• Est. completion date: November 30, 2024

Study information

• Verified date: November 2023
• Source: University of Rochester
• Contact: Laurel H Carney
• Phone: 5852763948
• Email: laurel.carney[@]rochester.edu
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of this study is to better understand the sensitivity of listeners to the fast changes in frequency or amplitude of sounds that occur in speech. The investigators are studying ways to manipulate these aspects of sounds in an effort to make speech sounds more clear.

Description:

The investigators will test listeners with normal hearing or with mild or moderate hearing loss. Tests will first focus on sensitivity to changes in fast changes in amplitude (loudness) or frequency (pitch) in sounds. Then the investigators will test the intelligibility of synthetic vowels and syllables in which these "chirps" are manipulated. Finally, the investigators will test intelligibility of words in noise while manipulating sounds in an effort to improve clarity.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 200
• Est. completion date: November 30, 2024
• Est. primary completion date: November 30, 2024
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 80 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Normal hearing, mild or moderate symmetric sensorineural hearing loss.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Asymmetric hearing thresholds (more than 15 decibels (dB) threshold difference between the two ears at any frequency up to 4 kHz).

• Severe hearing loss (greater than 60 dB hearing thresholds at any frequency up to 4 kHz).

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Hearing Loss
• Hearing Loss, Sensorineural

Intervention

Other:
• Signal processing to improve intelligibility
Signal processing will be used to manipulate frequency and amplitude fluctuations in complex sounds.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	University of Rochester	Rochester	New York

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Rochester	National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Discrimination thresholds for formant-freq difference limens	Measures of discrimination thresholds (in units of "% of Formant Frequency" at the discrimination threshold) for different formant bandwidths and for different alignments of formants and harmonics.	5 years
Secondary	% of correct synthetic vowels	% correct answers	5 years
Secondary	% of correct synthetic syllables	% correct answers	5 years
Secondary	% of correct words	% correct answers using SPiN test	5 years