FNIRS Assessment of Speech Comprehension in Children with Normal Hearing and Children with Hearing Aids in Virtual Acoustic Environments: Pilot Data and Practical Recommendations.

ABSTRACT: The integration of virtual acoustic environments (VAEs) with functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) offers novel avenues to investigate behavioral and neural processes of speech-in-noise (SIN) comprehension in complex auditory scenes. Particularly in children with hearing aids (HAs), the combined application might offer new insights into the neural mechanism of SIN perception in simulated real-life acoustic scenarios. Here, we present first pilot data from six children with normal hearing (NH) and three children with bilateral HAs to explore the potential applicability of this novel approach. Children with NH received a speech recognition benefit from low room reverberation and target-distractors' spatial separation, particularly when the pitch of the target and the distractors was

SUBMITTER: Bell L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7695031 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature