Fatigue Related to Speech Processing in Children With Hearing Loss: Behavioral, Subjective, and Electrophysiological Measures

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine fatigue associated with sustained and effortful speech-processing in children with mild to moderately severe hearing loss.

Method

We used auditory P300 responses, subjective reports, and behavioral indices (response time, lapses of attention) to measure fatigue resulting from sustained speech-processing demands in 34 children with mild to moderately severe hearing loss (M = 10.03 years, SD = 1.93).

Results

Compared to baseline values, children with hearing loss showed increased lapses in attention, longer reaction times, reduced P300 amplitudes, and greater reports of fatigue following the completion of the demanding speech-processing tasks.

Conclusions

Similar to children with normal hearing, children with hearing loss demonstrate reductions in attentional processing of speech in noise following sustained speech-processing tasks—a finding consistent with the development of fatigue.

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Lexical and Grammatical Factors in Sentence Production in Semantic Dementia: Insights From Greek

Purpose

Language production in semantic dementia (SD) is characterized by a lexical–semantic deficit and largely preserved argument structure and inflection production. This study investigates (a) the effect of argument structure on verb retrieval and (b) the interrelation between inflection marking and verb retrieval in SD.

Method

Seven individuals with SD and 7 healthy controls performed 2 sentence elicitation tasks. In Experiment 1, participants described the action taking place in a video. In Experiment 2, they watched the same videos preceded by a phrase prompting the production of past tense. Three verb classes were tested: (a) unergative (e.g., to walk), (b) unaccusative (e.g., to fall), and (c) transitive with 1 object (e.g., to read a book).

Results

There was not any quantitative difference among the verb classes in Experiment 1, but error analysis hinted at difficulties related with argument structure complexity. The findings of Experiment 2 suggest no general effect of inflection on verb retrieval; nevertheless, inflection marking impeded the retrieval of verbs with complex argument structure. Large individual variation was established.

Conclusions

Argument structure complexity may challenge speakers with SD. Verb retrieval and inflection marking seem to interrelate at the expense of the former. Inflection production may be affected at severe stages of the disease.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6030779

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Does the Visual Channel Improve the Perception of Consonants Produced by Speakers of French With Down Syndrome?

Purpose

This work evaluates whether seeing the speaker's face could improve the speech intelligibility of adults with Down syndrome (DS). This is not straightforward because DS induces a number of anatomical and motor anomalies affecting the orofacial zone.

Method

A speech-in-noise perception test was used to evaluate the intelligibility of 16 consonants (Cs) produced in a vowel–consonant–vowel context (Vo = /a/) by 4 speakers with DS and 4 control speakers. Forty-eight naïve participants were asked to identify the stimuli in 3 modalities: auditory (A), visual (V), and auditory–visual (AV). The probability of correct responses was analyzed, as well as AV gain, confusions, and transmitted information as a function of modality and phonetic features.

Results

The probability of correct response follows the trend AV > A > V, with smaller values for the DS than the control speakers in A and AV but not in V. This trend depended on the C: the V information particularly improved the transmission of place of articulation and to a lesser extent of manner, whereas voicing remained specifically altered in DS.

Conclusions

The results suggest that the V information is intact in the speech of people with DS and improves the perception of some phonetic features in Cs in a similar way as for control speakers. This result has implications for further studies, rehabilitation protocols, and specific training of caregivers.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6002267

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Fatigue Related to Speech Processing in Children With Hearing Loss: Behavioral, Subjective, and Electrophysiological Measures

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine fatigue associated with sustained and effortful speech-processing in children with mild to moderately severe hearing loss.

Method

We used auditory P300 responses, subjective reports, and behavioral indices (response time, lapses of attention) to measure fatigue resulting from sustained speech-processing demands in 34 children with mild to moderately severe hearing loss (M = 10.03 years, SD = 1.93).

Results

Compared to baseline values, children with hearing loss showed increased lapses in attention, longer reaction times, reduced P300 amplitudes, and greater reports of fatigue following the completion of the demanding speech-processing tasks.

Conclusions

Similar to children with normal hearing, children with hearing loss demonstrate reductions in attentional processing of speech in noise following sustained speech-processing tasks—a finding consistent with the development of fatigue.

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Lexical and Grammatical Factors in Sentence Production in Semantic Dementia: Insights From Greek

Purpose

Language production in semantic dementia (SD) is characterized by a lexical–semantic deficit and largely preserved argument structure and inflection production. This study investigates (a) the effect of argument structure on verb retrieval and (b) the interrelation between inflection marking and verb retrieval in SD.

Method

Seven individuals with SD and 7 healthy controls performed 2 sentence elicitation tasks. In Experiment 1, participants described the action taking place in a video. In Experiment 2, they watched the same videos preceded by a phrase prompting the production of past tense. Three verb classes were tested: (a) unergative (e.g., to walk), (b) unaccusative (e.g., to fall), and (c) transitive with 1 object (e.g., to read a book).

Results

There was not any quantitative difference among the verb classes in Experiment 1, but error analysis hinted at difficulties related with argument structure complexity. The findings of Experiment 2 suggest no general effect of inflection on verb retrieval; nevertheless, inflection marking impeded the retrieval of verbs with complex argument structure. Large individual variation was established.

Conclusions

Argument structure complexity may challenge speakers with SD. Verb retrieval and inflection marking seem to interrelate at the expense of the former. Inflection production may be affected at severe stages of the disease.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6030779

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Does the Visual Channel Improve the Perception of Consonants Produced by Speakers of French With Down Syndrome?

Purpose

This work evaluates whether seeing the speaker's face could improve the speech intelligibility of adults with Down syndrome (DS). This is not straightforward because DS induces a number of anatomical and motor anomalies affecting the orofacial zone.

Method

A speech-in-noise perception test was used to evaluate the intelligibility of 16 consonants (Cs) produced in a vowel–consonant–vowel context (Vo = /a/) by 4 speakers with DS and 4 control speakers. Forty-eight naïve participants were asked to identify the stimuli in 3 modalities: auditory (A), visual (V), and auditory–visual (AV). The probability of correct responses was analyzed, as well as AV gain, confusions, and transmitted information as a function of modality and phonetic features.

Results

The probability of correct response follows the trend AV > A > V, with smaller values for the DS than the control speakers in A and AV but not in V. This trend depended on the C: the V information particularly improved the transmission of place of articulation and to a lesser extent of manner, whereas voicing remained specifically altered in DS.

Conclusions

The results suggest that the V information is intact in the speech of people with DS and improves the perception of some phonetic features in Cs in a similar way as for control speakers. This result has implications for further studies, rehabilitation protocols, and specific training of caregivers.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6002267

from #Audiology via ola Kala on Inoreader https://ift.tt/2EEzEfu
via IFTTT

Fatigue Related to Speech Processing in Children With Hearing Loss: Behavioral, Subjective, and Electrophysiological Measures

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine fatigue associated with sustained and effortful speech-processing in children with mild to moderately severe hearing loss.

Method

We used auditory P300 responses, subjective reports, and behavioral indices (response time, lapses of attention) to measure fatigue resulting from sustained speech-processing demands in 34 children with mild to moderately severe hearing loss (M = 10.03 years, SD = 1.93).

Results

Compared to baseline values, children with hearing loss showed increased lapses in attention, longer reaction times, reduced P300 amplitudes, and greater reports of fatigue following the completion of the demanding speech-processing tasks.

Conclusions

Similar to children with normal hearing, children with hearing loss demonstrate reductions in attentional processing of speech in noise following sustained speech-processing tasks—a finding consistent with the development of fatigue.

from #Audiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader https://ift.tt/2GPY1IZ
via IFTTT

Lexical and Grammatical Factors in Sentence Production in Semantic Dementia: Insights From Greek

Purpose

Language production in semantic dementia (SD) is characterized by a lexical–semantic deficit and largely preserved argument structure and inflection production. This study investigates (a) the effect of argument structure on verb retrieval and (b) the interrelation between inflection marking and verb retrieval in SD.

Method

Seven individuals with SD and 7 healthy controls performed 2 sentence elicitation tasks. In Experiment 1, participants described the action taking place in a video. In Experiment 2, they watched the same videos preceded by a phrase prompting the production of past tense. Three verb classes were tested: (a) unergative (e.g., to walk), (b) unaccusative (e.g., to fall), and (c) transitive with 1 object (e.g., to read a book).

Results

There was not any quantitative difference among the verb classes in Experiment 1, but error analysis hinted at difficulties related with argument structure complexity. The findings of Experiment 2 suggest no general effect of inflection on verb retrieval; nevertheless, inflection marking impeded the retrieval of verbs with complex argument structure. Large individual variation was established.

Conclusions

Argument structure complexity may challenge speakers with SD. Verb retrieval and inflection marking seem to interrelate at the expense of the former. Inflection production may be affected at severe stages of the disease.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6030779

from #Audiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader https://ift.tt/2qlBxZV
via IFTTT

Does the Visual Channel Improve the Perception of Consonants Produced by Speakers of French With Down Syndrome?

Purpose

This work evaluates whether seeing the speaker's face could improve the speech intelligibility of adults with Down syndrome (DS). This is not straightforward because DS induces a number of anatomical and motor anomalies affecting the orofacial zone.

Method

A speech-in-noise perception test was used to evaluate the intelligibility of 16 consonants (Cs) produced in a vowel–consonant–vowel context (Vo = /a/) by 4 speakers with DS and 4 control speakers. Forty-eight naïve participants were asked to identify the stimuli in 3 modalities: auditory (A), visual (V), and auditory–visual (AV). The probability of correct responses was analyzed, as well as AV gain, confusions, and transmitted information as a function of modality and phonetic features.

Results

The probability of correct response follows the trend AV > A > V, with smaller values for the DS than the control speakers in A and AV but not in V. This trend depended on the C: the V information particularly improved the transmission of place of articulation and to a lesser extent of manner, whereas voicing remained specifically altered in DS.

Conclusions

The results suggest that the V information is intact in the speech of people with DS and improves the perception of some phonetic features in Cs in a similar way as for control speakers. This result has implications for further studies, rehabilitation protocols, and specific training of caregivers.

Supplemental Material

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.6002267

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Promising drug may deter hearing loss, study finds

A new drug has the potential to revolutionize the prevention and treatment of hearing loss resulting from noise, drug toxicity, and possibly aging, researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital claims. The researchers discovered inhibitors of enzyme Cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) that may protect people from developing hearing loss, including hearing impairment in the elderly population.

The study's lead author Jian Zuo, PhD told The Hearing Journal, "We have reported a genomic study that identified a predisposition to cisplatin-induced hearing loss (CIHL) among pediatric brain tumor patients (Xu et al., Nature Genetics 2015). While predicting which patients will develop CIHL is important, it is more imperative to develop drugs to prevent CIHL. There are no FDA-approved drugs for hearing loss. It is these thoughts that inspired us to screen for drugs against CIHL."

The researchers developed an approach to mimic mammalian cochlear cell death caused by antibiotics, noise, aging, and cisplatin to discover otoprotectants. Cisplatin is a chemotherapy agent, a treatment for an array of cancers, reported to cause permanent hearing loss in patients.

Examining a bioactive library of more than 4,000 unique compounds of an immortalized cell from a cochlear cell line of a neonatal mouse, study authors found ten compounds with protective effects against cisplatin ototoxicity. Among the top-hit compounds was kenpaullone, an inhibitor of CDK2 and other kinases, which are found in zebrafish, adult mice, and rats. Kenpaullone was found to deter cisplatin- and noise-induced damage.

"Our compounds are protective [not only] against CIHL but also noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). It is also likely that it protects against age-related hearing loss (ARHL)," Zuo explained. "Both NIHL and ARHL affect a large fraction of the society. Based on our results in an identical assay, our compound exhibits better protection against cisplatin-induced cell loss than four benchmark compounds currently in clinical trials. Therefore we believe that our compound will eventually fare well in future clinical trials."

When asked if the CDK2 inhibitors can help patients with inborn hearing loss, Zuo explained, "Our compounds will protect HL but have not been shown to restore hearing among patients with congenital deafness."

The researchers have filed a patent on the methods and the compositions of the CDK2 inhibitors that are discovered to prevent cisplatin- and noise-induced hearing loss.

Published: 4/10/2018 1:27:00 PM

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Promising drug may deter hearing loss, study finds

A new drug has the potential to revolutionize the prevention and treatment of hearing loss resulting from noise, drug toxicity, and possibly aging, researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital claims. The researchers discovered inhibitors of enzyme Cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) that may protect people from developing hearing loss, including hearing impairment in the elderly population.

The study's lead author Jian Zuo, PhD told The Hearing Journal, "We have reported a genomic study that identified a predisposition to cisplatin-induced hearing loss (CIHL) among pediatric brain tumor patients (Xu et al., Nature Genetics 2015). While predicting which patients will develop CIHL is important, it is more imperative to develop drugs to prevent CIHL. There are no FDA-approved drugs for hearing loss. It is these thoughts that inspired us to screen for drugs against CIHL."

The researchers developed an approach to mimic mammalian cochlear cell death caused by antibiotics, noise, aging, and cisplatin to discover otoprotectants. Cisplatin is a chemotherapy agent, a treatment for an array of cancers, reported to cause permanent hearing loss in patients.

Examining a bioactive library of more than 4,000 unique compounds of an immortalized cell from a cochlear cell line of a neonatal mouse, study authors found ten compounds with protective effects against cisplatin ototoxicity. Among the top-hit compounds was kenpaullone, an inhibitor of CDK2 and other kinases, which are found in zebrafish, adult mice, and rats. Kenpaullone was found to deter cisplatin- and noise-induced damage.

"Our compounds are protective [not only] against CIHL but also noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). It is also likely that it protects against age-related hearing loss (ARHL)," Zuo explained. "Both NIHL and ARHL affect a large fraction of the society. Based on our results in an identical assay, our compound exhibits better protection against cisplatin-induced cell loss than four benchmark compounds currently in clinical trials. Therefore we believe that our compound will eventually fare well in future clinical trials."

When asked if the CDK2 inhibitors can help patients with inborn hearing loss, Zuo explained, "Our compounds will protect HL but have not been shown to restore hearing among patients with congenital deafness."

The researchers have filed a patent on the methods and the compositions of the CDK2 inhibitors that are discovered to prevent cisplatin- and noise-induced hearing loss.

Published: 4/10/2018 1:27:00 PM

from #Audiology via xlomafota13 on Inoreader https://ift.tt/2GPABY4
via IFTTT

Promising drug may deter hearing loss, study finds

A new drug has the potential to revolutionize the prevention and treatment of hearing loss resulting from noise, drug toxicity, and possibly aging, researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital claims. The researchers discovered inhibitors of enzyme Cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2) that may protect people from developing hearing loss, including hearing impairment in the elderly population.

The study's lead author Jian Zuo, PhD told The Hearing Journal, "We have reported a genomic study that identified a predisposition to cisplatin-induced hearing loss (CIHL) among pediatric brain tumor patients (Xu et al., Nature Genetics 2015). While predicting which patients will develop CIHL is important, it is more imperative to develop drugs to prevent CIHL. There are no FDA-approved drugs for hearing loss. It is these thoughts that inspired us to screen for drugs against CIHL."

The researchers developed an approach to mimic mammalian cochlear cell death caused by antibiotics, noise, aging, and cisplatin to discover otoprotectants. Cisplatin is a chemotherapy agent, a treatment for an array of cancers, reported to cause permanent hearing loss in patients.

Examining a bioactive library of more than 4,000 unique compounds of an immortalized cell from a cochlear cell line of a neonatal mouse, study authors found ten compounds with protective effects against cisplatin ototoxicity. Among the top-hit compounds was kenpaullone, an inhibitor of CDK2 and other kinases, which are found in zebrafish, adult mice, and rats. Kenpaullone was found to deter cisplatin- and noise-induced damage.

"Our compounds are protective [not only] against CIHL but also noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). It is also likely that it protects against age-related hearing loss (ARHL)," Zuo explained. "Both NIHL and ARHL affect a large fraction of the society. Based on our results in an identical assay, our compound exhibits better protection against cisplatin-induced cell loss than four benchmark compounds currently in clinical trials. Therefore we believe that our compound will eventually fare well in future clinical trials."

When asked if the CDK2 inhibitors can help patients with inborn hearing loss, Zuo explained, "Our compounds will protect HL but have not been shown to restore hearing among patients with congenital deafness."

The researchers have filed a patent on the methods and the compositions of the CDK2 inhibitors that are discovered to prevent cisplatin- and noise-induced hearing loss.

Published: 4/10/2018 1:27:00 PM

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