title: Spatial release from masking as a function of the spectral overlap of competing talkers.
abstract: This study tested the hypothesis that the reduced spatial release from speech-on-speech masking typically observed in listeners with sensorineural hearing loss results from increased energetic masking. Target sentences were presented simultaneously with a speech masker, and the spectral overlap between the pair (and hence the energetic masking) was systematically varied. The results are consistent with increased energetic masking in listeners with hearing loss that limits performance when listening in speech mixtures. However, listeners with hearing loss did not exhibit reduced spatial release from masking when stimuli were filtered into narrow bands.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Hearing Research Center, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Best
authors.forename: Eric R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Christine R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kidd
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D013017:Sound Localization; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult