Speech perception in noise in adults with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorders

DONG Ruijuan; WANG Shuo; LIU Dongxin; WANG Yuan; CHEN Jing

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1672-2922.2015.04.008

Abstract：Objective To characterize speech perception ability in noise for a group of adults with auditory neuropa-thy spectrum disorders (ANSD), and investigate the correlation between their hearing thresholds and speech perception per-formance. Methods Thirty subjects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorders, sixteen subjects with sensorineural hear-ing loss (SNHL), and twelve subjects with normal hearing (NH) participated in this study. Speech identification test was carried out using the Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test (MHINT). In quiet condition, the speech level was fixed at most com-fortable level (MCL). In noisy conditions, the signal-to-noise ratio was set at+15,+10,+5 or 0 dB, respectively. The order of MHINT test was performed from easy to more difficult. Results The speech perception scores for the subjects with ANSD were significantly poorer than that for the subjects with SNHL and NH (P<0.05). In individuals with auditory neu-ropathy spectrum disorder, Post hoc analysis showed that the mean scores in quiet condition were not significantly differ-ent from those obtained in 15 dB conditions (P>0.05), but they significantly different from those obtained in 10 dB, 5 dB and 0 dB conditions (P <0.05). Significantly negative correlations were present between speech perception scores and PTA0.5–4 kHz for both SNHL (P<0.01) and ANSD (P<0.01) subjects. Conclusions Speech perception abilities in sub-jects with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorders are poorer than in subjects with sensorineural hearing loss. While sen-tence recognition in quiet is fairly good (>80%correct) for most Mandarin-speaking patients with ANSD, adding a moder-ate level of noise dramatically decreases their speech recognition capacity. Thus, clinical evaluation of ANSD should also include evaluation of speech recognition under different levels of noise.