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      Effects of Wireless Remote Microphone on Speech Recognition in Noise for Hearing Aid Users in China

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          Abstract

          Objective: This study was aimed at evaluating improvements in speech-in-noise recognition ability as measured by signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with the use of wireless remote microphone technology. These microphones transmit digital signals via radio frequency directly to hearing aids and may be a valuable assistive listening device for the hearing-impaired population of Mandarin speakers in China.

          Methods: Twenty-three adults (aged 19–80 years old) and fourteen children (aged 8–17 years old) with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss were recruited. The Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test was used to test speech recognition ability in adult subjects, and the Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test for Children was used for children. The subjects’ perceived SNR was measured using sentence recognition ability at three different listening distances of 1.5, 3, and 6 m. At each distance, SNR was obtained under three device settings: hearing aid microphone alone, wireless remote microphone alone, and hearing aid microphone and wireless remote microphone simultaneously.

          Results: At each test distance, for both adult and pediatric groups, speech-in-noise recognition thresholds were significantly lower with the use of the wireless remote microphone in comparison with the hearing aid microphones alone ( P < 0.05), indicating better SNR performance with the wireless remote microphone. Moreover, when the wireless remote microphone was used, test distance had no effect on speech-in-noise recognition for either adults or children.

          Conclusion: Wireless remote microphone technology can significantly improve speech recognition performance in challenging listening environments for Mandarin speaking hearing aid users in China.

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          Most cited references32

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          An Evaluation of the BKB-SIN, HINT, QuickSIN, and WIN Materials on Listeners With Normal Hearing and Listeners With Hearing Loss.

          The purpose of this study was to examine in listeners with normal hearing and listeners with sensorineural hearing loss the within- and between-group differences obtained with 4 commonly available speech-in-noise protocols. Recognition performances by 24 listeners with normal hearing and 72 listeners with sensorineural hearing loss were compared for 4 speech-in-noise protocols that varied with respect to the amount of contextual cues conveyed in the target signal. The protocols studied included the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Speech-in-Noise Test (BKB-SIN; Etymōtic Research, 2005; J. Bench, A. Kowal, & J. Bamford, 1979; P. Niquette et al., 2003), the Quick Speech-in-Noise Test (QuickSIN; M. C. Killion, P. A. Niquette, G. I. Gudmundsen, L. J. Revit, & S. Banerjee, 2004), and the Words-in-Noise test (WIN; R. H. Wilson, 2003; R. H. Wilson & C. A. Burks, 2005), each of which used multitalker babble and a modified method of constants, as well as the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT; M. Nilsson, S. Soli, & J. Sullivan, 1994), which used speech-spectrum noise and an adaptive psychophysical procedure. The 50% points for the listeners with normal hearing were in the 1- to 4-dB signal-to-babble ratio (S/B) range and for the listeners with hearing loss in the 5- to 14-dB S/B range. Separation between groups was least with the BKB-SIN and HINT (4-6 dB) and most with the QuickSIN and WIN (8-10 dB). The QuickSIN and WIN materials are more sensitive measures of recognition performance in background noise than are the BKB-SIN and HINT materials.
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            Face masks can be devastating for people with hearing loss

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              Development of the Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test (MHINT).

              To develop two versions of the Mandarin Hearing In Noise Test (MHINT). These tests are adaptive tests that measure the reception threshold for sentences (RTSs) in quiet and in noise. The RTS is the presentation level at which half the sentences are correctly recognized. Four studies were undertaken to (1) develop sentence materials, (2) equalize sentence difficulty, (3) create phonemically balanced sentence lists; and (4) evaluate within-list response variability, inter-list reliability, and produce normative data. A total of 137 native Mandarin (Putonghua) speaking subjects in Mainland China and 89 native Mandarin speakers in Taiwan participated. They had normal hearing thresholds at 25 dB HL or better. RTSs were measured under four headphone test conditions: Quiet, and in noise with noise originating from the 0 degree (Noise Front), 90 degrees to the right (Noise Right), and 90 degrees to the left (Noise Left). The speech originated from the front (0 degree) in all conditions. The noise level was fixed at 65 dBA, and the speech was varied adaptively to find the RTS. Two versions of the test materials, consisting of 24, 20-sentence lists each in Mandarin spoken in the Mainland (the MHINT-M) and the dialect of Mandarin spoken in Taiwan (the MHINT-T), were created from two sets of 240 sentences containing 10 syllables per sentence. The mean Quiet RTS was 14.7 dBA, using the MHINT-M, and 19.4 dBA, using the MHINT-T. Using the MHINT-M, the mean RTS for Noise Front was -4.3 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), -11.7 dB SNR for Noise Right, and -11.7 dB SNR for Noise Left. Using the MHINT-T, the Noise Front RTS was -4.0 dB SNR, -10.7 dB SNR for Noise Right, and -11.0 dB SNR for Noise Left. Results in noise are slightly better than those seen for the English HINT norms. Response variability within list was low, and inter-list reliability was high, indicating that consistent results can be obtained using any list. Confidence intervals are reported. The two versions of the MHINT are the first standardized Mandarin sentence speech intelligibility tests. Similar to other language versions of the HINT, the MHINT was developed using the same rationale as the English HINT, allowing norm-referenced results for the MHINT to be compared directly with results in other languages. The MHINT would benefit from further evaluation of its validity.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Neurosci
                Front Neurosci
                Front. Neurosci.
                Frontiers in Neuroscience
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1662-4548
                1662-453X
                12 April 2021
                2021
                : 15
                : 643205
                Affiliations
                Beijing Institute of Otolaryngology, Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Beijing Tongren Hospital, Capital Medical University , Beijing, China
                Author notes

                Edited by: Fan-Gang Zeng, University of California, Irvine, United States

                Reviewed by: Yi Yuan, University of Florida, United States; Jan-Willem A. Wasmann, Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre, Netherlands

                *Correspondence: Shuo Wang, shannonwsh@ 123456aliyun.com

                This article was submitted to Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience, a section of the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience

                Article
                10.3389/fnins.2021.643205
                8072043
                17bba04a-70a3-418d-ae31-3c8246072298
                Copyright © 2021 Chen, Wang, Dong, Fu, Wang and Wang.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 19 December 2020
                : 18 March 2021
                Page count
                Figures: 4, Tables: 1, Equations: 0, References: 34, Pages: 9, Words: 0
                Funding
                Funded by: National Natural Science Foundation of China 10.13039/501100001809
                Award ID: Nos. 81870715, 81200754
                Categories
                Neuroscience
                Original Research

                Neurosciences
                hearing aids,sensorineural hearing loss,signal-to-noise ratio,wireless remote microphone,speech-in-noise recognition

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