Effect of eye closure on speech recognition in noise: in light and in darkness.

OBJECTIVE: This study evaluated whether listening with an eye closure (EC) strategy improves speech recognition in noise (SRN) under different visual conditions. Previous research suggests EC may enhance activation of cortical systems involved in listening and attention. Study hypotheses were that EC listening leads to better SRN than eyes open listening, that listening in darkness leads to better SRN than in light, and EC listening leads to more improved SRN in light compared to darkness. DESIGN: SRN with the Cantonese Hearing in Noise Test (CHINT) under four conditions was assessed: (1) eyes open with lights on, (2) EC with lights on, (3) eyes open in darkened room, and (4) EC in darkened room. ANOVA determined potential differences among conditions and effect sizes were calculated. STUDY SAMPLE: Fifty-six young adults (age range 18-35 years) with bilaterally normal hearing. RESULTS: Significant effects for EC and presence/absence of an external visual stimulus on SRN were found. Post-hoc analysis found a statistically significant difference between eyes open and closed in light, with a large effect size, indicating EC resulted in the greatest improvement in SRN when in the presence of an external visual stimulus. However, differences compared with known CHINT inter-list variability lacked clinical importance. CONCLUSIONS: EC did significantly improve SRN and is a potential strategy for challenging listening situations when feasible, although no changes are needed for CHINT norms or testing procedures in relation to EC status.

Revisiting the Cutoff Criteria of Intelligibility in Context Scale-Traditional Chinese.

Background This study evaluated the validity of the Intelligibility in Context Scale-Traditional Chinese (ICS-TC) and explored its potential as a screening tool for speech sound disorder (SSD) in Cantonese-speaking children in Hong Kong. Method The parents of 789 Cantonese-speaking children aged between 2;4 (years;months) and 6;9 completed the ICS-TC. Children were categorized into 2 groups: (a) an SSD group whose initial consonant scores in a standardized assessment were equal to or lower than -1.33 SD and (b) a non-SSD group whose scores were higher than -1.33 SD. The screening accuracy of ICS-TC using a previously proposed cutoff was appraised. A cutoff score for each age group was determined when the effect of age on the ICS-TC mean scores was significant and the corresponding screening accuracy was appraised. Results When the previously proposed cutoff was applied to the whole sample, sensitivity and specificity were unsatisfactory. Given the significant age effect, new cutoff scores for each age group were estimated. The new cutoff scores only led to remarkably improved screening accuracy for Age Group 4 (4;0-4;5) but little to no improvement for other age groups. Conclusions There is limited clinical use of ICS-TC as a screening tool with a single cutoff score for children at different ages. Its clinical utility might be limited to children of about 4 years of age, where ICS-TC scores demonstrated the best differentiation between children with and without speech concerns. Future studies could refine the screening criteria to further minimize the number of false positives.