Abstract
Objective: The AzBio sentence test is widely used to assess speech perception pre- and post-cochlear implantation. This study created and validated a Hebrew version of AzBio (HeBio) and tested its intelligibility amidst background noise. Methods: In Experiment 1, 1,000 recorded Hebrew sentences were presented via five-channel vocoder to 10 normal hearing (NH) listeners for intelligibility testing. In Experiment 2, HeBio lists were presented to 25 post-lingual cochlear implant (CI) users amidst four-talker babble noise (4TBN) or in quiet, along with one-syllable word test. In Experiment 3, 20 NH listeners were presented with eight HeBio lists in two noise conditions [4TBN, speech shaped noise (SSN)] and four SNRs (+3, 0 dB, −3 dB, −6 dB). Results: HeBio lists (33) produced 82% average understanding, no inter-list intelligibility differences among NH, and equal intelligibility for CI users. One-syllable words predicted 67% of the variance in HeBio among CI users. Higher intelligibility was found for SSN than for 4TBN, and the mean speech receptive threshold (SRT) was more negative for SSN than for 4TBN. Conclusions: HeBio results were similar to AzBio. Results obtained with two noise types were as expected. HeBio is recommended for evaluation of different populations in quiet and noise.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 270-279 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Cochlear Implants International |
| Volume | 23 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 2022 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Funding
The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article. The authors thank Koral Gazit-Yoseph, Zimrat Iram, Efrat Bubas, Aharon Ben, and Stav Ohayon for collecting data for this study.
Keywords
- AzBio
- HeBio
- Open set
- Sentence Test
- Speech Perception