Glimpses: Their importance for the perception of speech...

Understanding everyday conversation in the midst of competing speech and noise is a daunting task for the hearing impaired.  There is little concensus on the exact mechanisms enabling the separation of wanted speech from unwanted noise .  The normal system seems able to detect very short glimpses of speech in multiple frequency regions located in the cochleae and integrate these bits and pieces into a useful message.  Much of the processing is accomplished by the brainstem and cortical centers.  

When one sustains hearing loss there are a multitude of distortions potentially acting to reduce our natural noise reduction capabilities.  Some of the newer hearing aids can help in reducing certain types of noise and should be considered based upon the patient’s daily needs.  Visit an audiologist experienced in speech perception to determine whether you could benefit from a few more ‘glimpses’!




Journal of the Acoustical Society of America;  Vol.  119, #3; March 06;  pp.1562-1573

Journal of Acoustical Society of America; Vol. 123, #4, April 08; pp. 2237-2248