TY - GEN
T1 - Acoustic and developmental factors in voice perception in children with hearing devices
AU - Başkent, Deniz
AU - Rachman, Laura
AU - Nagels, Leanne
AU - Babaoğlu, Gizem
AU - Ertürk, Pınar
AU - Yazgan, Başak Özkişi
AU - Vickers, Deborah
AU - Hendriks, Petra
AU - Sennaroğlu, Gonca
AU - Gaudrain, Etienne
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Başkent et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Perception of voice cues, voice pitch (F0) and vocal-tract length (VTL), is important for recognizing speakers. Its investigation in children with hearing devices could be challenging due to the combined effects of cognitive development and distortions induced by hearing loss. We measured voice cue just-noticeable-differences (JNDs) in school-age children with hearing aids, cochlear implants, or typical hearing. Children with hearing aids had, overall, larger voice cue JNDs (less sensitive) than the control group, but this effect was mostly confined to younger ages for F0. Individual data showed relatively large overlap between the JNDs of typically-hearing children and those using hearing aids. For the few children with very large JNDs, the degree of hearing loss or aided thresholds did not seem determining factors. Children with cochlear implants in general had larger voice cue JNDs than the control group, while there was also some overlap with JNDs of the control group. Such overlap in adult CI users' JNDs with their own control group was smaller in comparison. In all children, general developmental effects were seen, although these differed between F0 and VTL perception. Overall, results confirm that early use of hearing devices can provide benefits in voice perception, and with continued use of the devices this ability may develop further.
AB - Perception of voice cues, voice pitch (F0) and vocal-tract length (VTL), is important for recognizing speakers. Its investigation in children with hearing devices could be challenging due to the combined effects of cognitive development and distortions induced by hearing loss. We measured voice cue just-noticeable-differences (JNDs) in school-age children with hearing aids, cochlear implants, or typical hearing. Children with hearing aids had, overall, larger voice cue JNDs (less sensitive) than the control group, but this effect was mostly confined to younger ages for F0. Individual data showed relatively large overlap between the JNDs of typically-hearing children and those using hearing aids. For the few children with very large JNDs, the degree of hearing loss or aided thresholds did not seem determining factors. Children with cochlear implants in general had larger voice cue JNDs than the control group, while there was also some overlap with JNDs of the control group. Such overlap in adult CI users' JNDs with their own control group was smaller in comparison. In all children, general developmental effects were seen, although these differed between F0 and VTL perception. Overall, results confirm that early use of hearing devices can provide benefits in voice perception, and with continued use of the devices this ability may develop further.
KW - cochlear implants
KW - development
KW - hearing aids
KW - vocal tract length
KW - voice pitch
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85191258713&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85191258713
T3 - Proceedings of Forum Acusticum
BT - Forum Acusticum 2023 - 10th Convention of the European Acoustics Association, EAA 2023
PB - European Acoustics Association, EAA
T2 - 10th Convention of the European Acoustics Association, EAA 2023
Y2 - 11 September 2023 through 15 September 2023
ER -