A comparison of temporal processing and spectral processing abilities of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual children

Age Impacts Speech-in-Noise Recognition Differently for Nonnative and Native Listeners

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study was to explore potential differences in suprathreshold auditory function among native and nonnative speakers of English as a function of age.

METHOD

Retrospective analyses were performed on three large data sets containing suprathreshold auditory tests completed by 5,572 participants who were self-identified native and nonnative speakers of English between the ages of 18-65 years, including a binaural tone detection test, a digit identification test, and a sentence recognition test.

RESULTS

The analyses show a significant interaction between increasing age and participant group on tests involving speech-based stimuli (digit strings, sentences) but not on the binaural tone detection test. For both speech tests, differences in speech recognition emerged between groups during early adulthood, and increasing age had a more negative impact on word recognition for nonnative compared to native participants. Age-related declines in performance were 2.9 times faster for digit strings and 3.3 times faster for sentences for nonnative participants compared to native participants.

CONCLUSIONS

This set of analyses extends the existing literature by examining interactions between aging and self-identified native English speaker status in several auditory domains in a cohort of adults spanning young adulthood through middle age. The finding that older nonnative English speakers in this age cohort may have greater-than-expected deficits on speech-in-noise perception may have clinical implications on how these individuals should be diagnosed and treated for hearing difficulties.

The Effect of Second Language Acquisition Age (AOA) on Auditory Processing Skills

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the age of second language acquisition on auditory binaural and temporal processing in three groups of early and late Persian-English bilingual and Persian monolingual children. The sample consisted of 63 subjects aged between 9 and 13 years, divided into: 21 monolingual, 21 early bilingual and 21 late bilingual children. The individuals were underwent to the Dichotic digits (DD), Pitch Pattern Sequence (PPS), Duration Pattern Sequence (DPS) and gaps in noise (GIN) tests. The results showed that the scores of dichotic digits, frequency and duration pattern tests were different between the three groups. These scores were better in early bilingual in comparison to other groups. There was no difference in the scores of the mentioned tests between the late bilingual and monolingual groups. There was no significant difference between the GIN results in the three study groups. predictive variables include Binaural Proficiency (BP), Age of Acquisition (AoA) of English language, Time Period of Learning (TPL) English language are the determining factors of the dichotic digit and the frequency and duration pattern tests. Learning a second language before the age of six has a positive effect on dichotic and temporal pattern processing. In addition, lower AoA, more proficiency in the second language, and the longer the duration of receiving the second language training are related to better dichotic and temporal pattern processing.

Evaluation of p300 and spectral resolution in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and specific learning disorder

This study aims to examine auditory processing, P300 values and functional impairment levels among children with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Specific Learning Disorder (SLD), ADHD+SLD and healthy controls. Children with ADHD (n = 17), SLD (n = 15), ADHD+SLD (n = 15), and healthy controls (n = 15) between the ages of 7-12 were evaluated with K-SADS, Weiss Functional Impairment Rating Scale, Turgay DSM-IV Disruptive Behavior Disorders Rating Scale, The Mathematics, Reading, Writing Assessment Scale and Children's Auditory Performance Scale (CHAPS). Auditory P300 event-related potentials and Spectral-Temporally Modulated Ripple Test (SMRT) were applied. Three patient groups were found to be riskier than healthy controls according to the CHAPS. There was no significant difference between the groups in the SMRT. In post-hoc analyses of P300 parietal amplitudes, ADHD, SLD, and ADHD+SLD were found to be significantly lower than the control group. The amplitudes of the ADHD+SLD were by far the lowest. It has been shown that auditory performance skills and p300 amplitudes are lower in children diagnosed with only ADHD or SLD compared to the control group, with the lowest values observed in ADHD+SLD. This study suggests that the difficulties with attention and cognitive functions in the ADHD+SLD are more severe than ADHD and/or SLD without comorbidity.

The Effect of Hemodialysis on Spectral and Temporal Processing Abilities and Speech Perception in Noise among Individuals with Chronic Kidney Disease

INTRODUCTION

The effect of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on hearing is well documented in the literature. Several studies have investigated the effect of hemodialysis on the peripheral auditory system among individuals with CKD. However, studies investigating the effect of hemodialysis on speech perception and auditory processing abilities are limited. The present study investigated the effect of hemodialysis on few auditory processing abilities and speech perception in noise among adults with CKD.

METHODS

A total of 25 adults with CKD undergoing hemodialysis regularly participated in the study. Spectral ripple discrimination threshold (SRDT), gap detection threshold (GDT), amplitude-modulation detection threshold (AMDT), and speech recognition threshold in noise (SRTn) were measured before and after hemodialysis. Paired samples "t" test was carried out to investigate the effect of hemodialysis on thresholds.

RESULTS

Results showed a significant improvement for SRDT, GDT, AMDT, and SRTn after hemodialysis among individuals with CKD.

DISCUSSION

Hemodialysis showed a positive effect on speech perception in noise and auditory processing abilities among individuals with CKD.