The influence of face masks on speech intelligibility of cochlear implant users
Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Hearing impaired listeners heavily rely on facial expressions and unfiltered speech signals for a sufficient speech understanding. Due to the current Covid-19 pandemic face masks are worn by almost everyone every day. They therefore interfere especially with the communication of hearing impaired listeners. We used a modified audiovisual German matrix sentence test (AV-OLSA) 1 to further evaluate the effect of face masks on speech intelligibility in a cohort of cochlear implant users (CI, n=15) and a control group of normal hearing listeners (NH, n=5). Besides “audio-only”, “visual-only” and “audiovisual” conditions, we added modified conditions. These consisted of an audiovisual condition with a simulated mask and an audio signal, which was edited according to the acoustic filter properties of different face masks (surgical and FFP-2). Our preliminary data show a gain of 5.3 dB (CI) and 2.6 dB (NH) in speech reception thresholds at 80% word recognition (SRT 80% ) respectively, if a speaker’s video is added to an unfiltered audio signal. Different types of face masks (surgical and FFP-2) led to a deterioration in SRT 80% in both groups of up to 7.6 dB (CI) and 4.2 dB (NH) when compared to an unfiltered audiovisual condition without a face mask. The acoustic filter properties of the face masks accounted for up to 2.2 dB (CI) and 1.5 dB (NH) of the deterioration in SRT 80% . This effect was therefore less distinct compared to the effect of a missing video signal. Face masks complicate the daily communication. These effects are already detectable in a cohort of normal hearing listeners 2 and even more pronounced in hearing impaired listeners, e.g. cochlear implant users. 1) Llorach G et al., Int J Audiol , 2021. 2) Sönnichsen R et al., Otol Neurotol, accepted for publication. Publication History Article published online: 24 May 2022 © 2022. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Georg Thieme Verlag Rüdigerstraße 14, 70469 Stuttgart,Germany
Source: Laryngo-Rhino-Otologie
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4293148836