Hearing impairment and self-masking: listening during vocalization.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the masking effect of a vocalized [a:] on noise bands and speech in persons with mild-to-moderate hearing impairment (HI).


METHODS
The masked threshold of noise bands (250-8000 Hz), continuous discourse, and the amount of masking produced were determined. The maximal vocalization level was determined, that still allowed the subject to just follow the continuous discourse.


METHODS
Twenty persons with sensory-neural HI, twelve with a high-frequency (HF) loss and eight with low-, mid-frequency or flat (LMF) loss.


RESULTS
The [a:] gave a significantly higher masked threshold at 70 and 80 dBA vocalization for subjects with HF loss than for normal-hearing (NH) subjects, and somewhat higher thresholds than for those with LMF loss. The amount of masking produced was significantly smaller for subjects with HI than NH.


CONCLUSIONS
It is important to consider masking effects of self-produced sounds in auditory rehabilitation, and in the future design of hearing aids.
Audiologic Research Centre, University Hospital of Örebro, Örebro, Sweden. Erik.borg@orebroll.se
Erik
E
Borg
Carina
C
Wikström
Dan
D
Gustafsson
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000523:psychology*; D006316:Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / Q000523:psychology; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013065:Speech Intelligibility; D013067:Speech Perception; D013548:Sweden; D014831:Voice