Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons^™

The Effect Of Workplace Noise Exposure On Reaction Time, Hollis T. Leidy

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This study examined the effect of listening fatigue on the reaction time of normal hearing listeners, who work in noisy places, at different signal to noise ratios (quiet, +5 and +10 dB). Reaction time was measured using a single task paradigm on twelve male listeners (ages 23-58 years) before and after an eight hour shift at a noisy power plant. The participants in the study also completed a subjective rating questionnaire at two intervals, before and after the fatigue-inducing condition. Results of the study indicated that the reaction time was significantly longer for the most difficult listening condition, indicating the …

Development And Deployment Of A Small Stereo-Hearing Testing System: Two Manuscripts, Sofia A. Ganev

Dissertations, 2014-2019

MANUSCRIPT #1 TITLE

Development of a Deployable Stereo-Hearing System

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of a portable stereo-hearing testing system with the intent of deployment for data collection in future studies. We quantify sound localization accuracy and speech-in-noise thresholds comparing unilateral (such as single-sided deafness) and bilateral subjects. We desired to design a small, inexpensive system that would show a large effect size between binaural and monaural subjects in a variety of stereo hearing tasks.

Methods: Subjects were tested on localization accuracy and speech understanding in noise using a laboratory-made stereo-hearing testing device. For the …

The Effect Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease On Swallowing, Jessica R. Torres

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This work is composed of a literature review, research review, and self-reflective essay. The anatomy and physiology of normal swallowing and respiration are reviewed. Additionally, the effect of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on these processes is discussed. The research goal was to determine how lung volume changes adapt the physiology of swallowing in individuals with COPD. The research project was designed and conducted by Teresa Drulia, M.S., CCC-SLP. COPD participants (n=9, mean age=72, 6 male) were compared to older healthy individuals (n=10, mean age= 59, 3 male). Participants completed swallows of 20cc of water at four lung volume conditions: …

The Effects Of Lung Volume On Swallowing In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Teresa C. Drulia

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a respiratory disease that leads to reduced airflow, may result in difficulty swallowing with disease progression. The coordination between the respiratory and swallowing systems decouple and they may experience increased risk of aspiration. This study aimed to determine the effects of lung volume on swallowing in individuals with COPD compared with older healthy. Specifically, the study examined if altering lung volume at the time of the swallow changed swallowing timing, specifically pharyngeal swallow duration, and impacted the respiratory-swallow pattern in individuals with COPD. Measurement of estimated lung volume (ELV), pharyngeal swallow duration, and respiratory-swallow patterning …

Type And Location Of Speech Disruptions In Adolescents With And Without Specific Language Impairment, Katherine E. Davies

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This research project analyzed the types and locations of speech disruptions in adolescents with and without Specific Language Impairment (SLI). The narrative samples of 12 adolescents with SLI and 12 typically developing (TD) adolescents were analyzed. Using Schwalbe’s (2012) classification system, the speech disruptions in the 24 narratives were coded for the type and reason for disruption. The broad category of speech disruptions were classified under revisions, repetitions, filled pauses and orphans, and silent pauses. The reason for the disruption was coded as the part of speech of the word that was determined to have caused the disruption. Comparisons were …

Reflection: Effect Of Age On Auditory Brainstem Responses In Mice With Epha4 Mutations, Erica L. Hoogerland

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss is a condition that affects approximately 40% of the population over 65 years of age (Gates & Mills, 2005). Studying the effects of EphA4 mutations (wild type, heterozygous, and homozygous) mice is fundamental in understanding the relationship between onset of age-related hearing loss, in both the mammalian population and the human population. In order to further understanding of age-related hearing loss, the researchers evaluated thirty-six mice in a preliminary study from two months to nine months of age. Following data analysis, the researchers confirmed the results by continuing a second round of testing. The hearing …

Build-Up Effect Of Auditory Stream Segregation Using Amplitude-Modulated Narrowband Noise, Harley J. Wheeler

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Recent psychoacoustic experiments (Böckmann-Barthel et al., 2014; Deike et al., 2012) have re-examined research regarding stream segregation and the build-up effect. Stream segregation is the ability to discern auditory objects within a stream of information, such as distinguishing one voice amongst background noise or an instrument within an orchestra. Initial works examining this topic proposed that auditory information is not immediately distinguished as various streams, but rather that differences accumulate over time, allowing listeners to segregate information following a period of build-up (i.e., the build-up effect); whereas more current findings indicate a build-up period is unnecessary for segregation. This experiment’s …

Release From Masking: Behavioral And Physiological Masking Level Differences, Sarah L. Hodgson

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Binaural hearing offers several advantages over monaural hearing and is believed to be one factor that is involved in the ability to understand speech in background noise. Binaural hearing involves analysis of interaural timing and intensity differences in signals arriving at the two ears which provides listeners with sound localization cues as well as signal in noise detection. When sounds arrive at each ear at slightly different times, there may be a release from the effects of background noise, allowing listeners to detect softer sounds in noise. Masking Level Differences (MLDs) have been widely used to evaluate behavioral binaural processing. …

Wideband Acoustic Immittance And Dpoae Changes In Older Adults, Mandy M. Williams

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This study examined the effect of middle ear aging in adults using wideband acoustic immittance (WAI) measures. WAI and traditional 226 Hz tympanometry were measured in 25 young adult ears (ages 18-25) and 26 older adult ears (ages 50-71) with normal middle ear status. While minimal differences between older and younger adults were observed with 226 Hz tympanometry, significant age effects were seen with WAI measures. The older adults demonstrated a statistically significant increase in middle ear absorbance at lower frequencies (226-1,260 Hz) and decreased absorbance at higher frequencies (4,000-5,040 Hz) compared to the younger adult group. While the effect …

The Effect Of Auditory Fatigue On Reaction Time In Normal Hearing Listeners At Different Signal To Noise Ratios, Haley Athey

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This study examined the effect of listening fatigue on the reaction time of young, normal hearing listeners at +5 and +10 dB signal to noise ratio. Reaction time was measured in a single task paradigm on twenty listeners (ages 19-30 years) before and after a fatigue-inducing listening task. The participants also completed a subjective rating questionnaire at the two intervals. Results indicated that there was no significant difference between the reaction times before and after listening fatigue. However, for a subgroup of stimuli (nonsense syllables ending with consonants) the reaction time was 52 msec longer after listening fatigue. The participants …

Inter-Professional Collaboration: The Impact Of Serial Versus Merged Treatment On The Behavior Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Robyn Starry

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Interdisciplinary collaboration is an innovative, resourceful approach to healthcare intended to positively affect patient outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to determine the efficacy of the serial exposure to three treatments, Applied Behavior Analysis, Speech Language Pathology, and Occupational Therapy, in comparison with an exposure to a merge of these treatments on child outcomes. During the serial treatment phases of intervention, three licensed professionals implemented core techniques from their respective disciplines. During merged treatment phases, a graduate clinician combined and implemented techniques from all three fields: differential attention, request sequences, sensory exposure, verbal/tactile cueing for postural alignment/control and …

Variability In Clinically Measured Wideband Acoustic Immittance Over Time In Young And Old Adults, Allison G. Mcgrath

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Wideband acoustic immittance (WAI) measures of the middle ear have the potential to increase our ability to detect changes in the middle ear transfer function not seen using traditional tympanometry. In order to use this new tool diagnostically we must first understand its normal clinical variability. The present study aimed to investigate the variability that occurs when wideband acoustic immittance (WAI) is measured clinically within subjects as a function of subject age, as a function of time, and as a function of pressure. A total of thirty-six ears from eighteen subjects were studied (n=18 young adults ears, n=18 older adult …

Practices Supporting Breastfeeding In The Nicu: A National Survey, Elizabeth E. Nottingham

Showcase of Graduate Student Scholarship and Creative Activities

Babies who are born early are at risk for developing serious life-threatening conditions and developmental delays. Providing babies with breast milk, and helping them breast feed has been shown to reduce the chances of these conditions and delays. However, hospitals across the country have adopted wildly different practices when it comes to feeding these babies. By understanding the current practices in hospitals across the country, we can begin to understand how to affect change.

Mouth Asymmetries During Infant Babbling: A Brain Lateralization Study, Cecilia Breazile

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Although babbling is both prevalent and important in the process of language development, it could be argued that we still do not understand the basic nature of babbling. To further our understanding of the nature of babbling we attempted to find evidence for brain lateralization typical of adult speech acts during early babbling. This study examined infant mouth asymmetries during babbling sequences in search of evidence that babbling is an inherently linguistic act as indicated by the lateralization of the brain. Previously recorded videos of 12 infants, all 9 months of age, were examined, 29 images were captured, and a …

Evidence-Based Practices In Selecting Standardized Assessments Of Child Language, Darielle Cooper

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

From the results of a survey given to 1,399 speech-language pathologists, 11 frequently used language assessment tools for preschool and school age children were selected to undergo a systematic review. The examiner’s manual of each assessment was examined to determine whether the test reported adequate psychometric properties and acceptable levels of diagnostic accuracy. Results indicated that all reviewed assessments met at least 60% of McCauley and Swisher’s (1984) psychometric criteria for evaluating norm-referenced tests. Six of the 11 assessments provided information on diagnostic accuracy in the examiner’s manual or in the literature. Four tests published acceptable levels of diagnostic accuracy, …

Does Vestibular Sensory Stimulation, In The Form Of Slow, Linear Swinging, Change The Modes Of Communication Among Children With Autism?, Katherine A. Gallaher

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this study was to determine if children with autism receiving vestibular sensory stimulation (VSS) in the form of slow, linear swinging, had any change or progression in their modes of communication when compared to children with autism who received a free-play period (nVSS) during speech-language (SL) therapy. Over the course of therapy, each child’s response mode was recorded as a gesture, vocalization, gesture + vocalization, or an utterance, and each mode was a dependent variable (DV) in this study. Participants who received VSS treatment were expected to have a greater improvement on the progression of modes, such …

Quality Of Life Indices In Brain Injury: A Pilot Investigation, Lauren Kristine Maher

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This IRB approved study explores the scope of acquired brain injury (ABI) as it affects an individual’s perceived quality of life and how measurement informs clinical decisions. Quality of life is an important consideration for persons with ABI, since research indicates acquired brain injury can lead to personality changes such as depression, anxiety, and aggression not previously exhibited (Greve et al., 2001). When treating persons with ABI, healthcare professionals must be able to reliably measure and track their client’s perceived quality of life. This pilot study included 35 clients receiving community-based intervention at Crossroads to Brain Injury Recovery, Inc. (Crossroads) …

Pre-Pulse Inhibition Assessment Of Sound Localization In Mice, Kathryn C. Brooks

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of my Honors Research Project was to assist Dr. Megan

Klingenberg in completing part of the research in her final dissertation project. Dr.

Klingenberg’s project was based off of a study done by Allen and Ison in 2010.

This study tested the auditory spatial acuity of mice using pre-pulse inhibition of

the startle reflex as the response for detecting the sound stimulus. The goal of

Dr. Klingenberg’s AuD project was “to explore the methodological, functional, and

genetic influences on sound localization using pre-pulse inhibition of the acoustic

startle response in mice”. Dr. Klingenberg’s project was broken into three …

Binaural Listening In Young And Middle-Aged Adults: Interaural Phase Differences And Speech-In-Noise Measures, Caitlin Cotter

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Difficulty understanding speech in the presence of noise is a common complaint of middle-aged and older adults with and without hearing loss. There is an incomplete picture of what contributes to difficulties understanding speech-in-noise in adults who have normal audiograms. As humans we listen binaurally, so declines in binaural processing may contribute to speech-in-noise difficulties. We examined the effects of age on the upper frequency limit of interaural phase difference (IPD) detection and IPD detection at fixed frequencies. We also examined a speech-in-noise measure of spatial separation across young and middle-aged, normal-hearing individuals.

Participants were young (n=12) and middle-aged (n=8) …

Speech Function In Persons With Parkinson's Disease: Effects Of Environment, Task And Treatment, Carrie E. Rountrey

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a degenerative neurological disease affecting aspects of movement, including speech. Persons with PD are reported to have better speech functioning in the clinical setting than in the home setting, but this has not been quantified. New methodologies in ambulatory measures of speech are emerging that allow investigation of non-clinical settings.

The following questions are addressed: Is speech different between environments in PD and in healthy controls? Can clinical tasks predict speech behaviors in the home? Is treatment proven effective by measures in the home? What can we glean from methods of measurement of speech function in …

Hyolaryngeal Kinematics And Swallow Patterning In Normal And Disordered Swallowing, Seng Mun Wong

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Hyoid and laryngeal movements contribute to laryngeal vestibule closure and upper esophageal sphincter (UES) opening for safe swallowing. However, the extent of movement required for achieving these goals, and the interaction between hyoid and laryngeal movements during swallowing are unknown. Despite impairment in vestibule closure and UES opening, patients with dysphagia may exhibit reduced, increased or similar hyolaryngeal displacements as healthy individuals. This limits the delineation between normal and disordered swallowing. We investigated whether anatomical differences in hyolaryngeal positions and the extent of laryngeal vestibule opening at rest would better predict hyolaryngeal displacements and the extent of vestibule closure during …

Effects Of Training And Lung Volume Levels On Voice Onset Control And Cortical Activation In Singers, Nicholas A. Barone

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Singers need to counteract respiratory elastic recoil at high and low lung volume levels (LVLs) to maintain consistent airflow and pressure while singing. Professionally trained singers modify their vocal and respiratory systems creating a physiologically stable and perceptually pleasing voice quality at varying LVLs. In manuscript 1, we compared non-singers and singers on the initiation of a voiceless plosive followed by a vowel at low (30% vital capacity, VC), intermediate (50%VC), and high (80%VC) LVLs. In manuscript 2, we examined how vocal students (singers in manuscript 1) learn to control their voice onset at varying LVLs before and after a …

Functional Recovery: A Mixed Methods Study Of The Specific Variables Within A Post-Hospital Inter-Disciplinary Brain Injury Rehabilitation - Residential Program, Victoria Harding

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The mixed methods explanatory design study examined specific constructs of Post Hospital Interdisciplinary Brain Injury Rehabilitation – Residential (PHIDBIR-R) programs that positively influenced gains in function. The investigation involved exploring the phenomenon of individuals’ experiences while participating in a PHIDBIR-R program as part of recovery from brain injury. The study’ primary purpose was to understand individuals who make the greatest gains in function while participating in these programs, as measured by the Mayo-Portland Adaptability Inventory-4 (MPAI-4) change scores from admission to discharge and what are the components of these programs that may contribute to individuals’ gains in function.

Data were …

The Effect Of Taste On Swallowing Function, Rachel Mulheren

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This study investigated the effects of taste on swallowing frequency and cortical activation in the swallowing network. The effects of salivary flow and taster status were also examined, along with genetic taster status. The effects of a 3ml bolus compared sour, sour with slow infusion, sweet, water, and water with infusion. Swallowing frequency was significantly higher 0-15 seconds after bolus delivery than 16-30 seconds. Swallowing frequency was higher in the sour conditions, whereas sweet and water did not differ. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy recordings measured changes in blood oxygenation (HbO) in the right and left hemispheres in the premotor, S1 and …

The Effect Of Auditory Fatigue On Reaction Time In Normal Hearing Listeners, Beth I. Hulvey

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Hearing impaired individuals often report feeling fatigue at the end of the day. These individuals are forced to exert more cognitive effort throughout the day as they strain to understand speech in an ever-changing auditory environment through an impaired/degraded auditory system (Rabbitt, 1991). Today’s digital hearing aids attempt to increase audibility and relieve cognitive strain through advanced signal processing techniques such as digital noise reduction (DNR). Recent research regarding noise and its effects on auditory fatigue in hearing impaired listeners suggests that DNR may reduce the effects of auditory fatigue (Sarampalis et al, 2009). The overarching goal of a future …

Pre-Pulse Inhibition Assessment Of Sound Localization In Mice: Methodological, Functional, And Genetic Considerations, Megan Klingenberg

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Sound localization is an important aspect of normal hearing. The Eph/ephin family of signaling proteins, studied here, is known to guide the formation of central auditory connections in early development, particularly topographic inputs from the lateral superior olive (LSO) to the inferior colliculus (IC). Processing in the LSO and its influences on the IC are known to be heavily involved in sound localization tasks. One way to study sound localization in mice is through pre-pulse inhibition (PPI). PPI is the phenomenon by which a weak prestimulus inhibits the response to a subsequent startle stimulus. In studying sound localization, the prestimulus …

Examining Monaural And Binaural Measures Of Phase-Locking As A Function Of Age, Larissa M. Heckler

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Understanding speech in the presence of background noise is a common complaint of middle-aged and older listeners with clinically normal audiograms. There is great interest in understanding how age-related changes in auditory physiology make it harder for older adults to understand speech in difficult listening situations, compared to young listeners. It was recently reported that middle-aged and older normal-hearing listeners showed frequency-dependent, age-related declines in the behavioral and physiological detection of interaural phase differences (Grose & Mamo, 2010; Ross et al, 2007). There is also evidence of an age-related, frequency-dependent decline in the frequency-following response (FFR) (Clinard et al., 2010), …

Training To Avoid Distractions, Cara E. Sanderson

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Introduction: Auditory training has been extensively studied and applied to training software that is currently available for children with attention, hearing, or speech/language difficulties. The extent to which training generalizes, or transfers to an untrained task, is of great theoretical value. To our knowledge, there has not been a study that examines transference to a non-sensory masking task.

Methods: 16 adults without ADHD were trained in a contralateral masking task over the course of two days, with 900 trials per day. False alarm rates, thresholds, and reaction times were measured. Pre- and post-tests of contralateral and informational masking were conducted …

Effect Of Adaptive Frequency Lowering On Phoneme Identification And Sound Quality Of Music In Hearing-Impaired Listeners, Kaitlyn A. Sabri

Dissertations, 2014-2019

The most common type and configuration of hearing loss seen in clinics is high frequency sensorineural hearing loss. High-frequency hearing losses can lead to difficulties understanding speech in noise. Traditional amplification can aid in audibility of high-frequency information; however, its success is limited due to acoustic feedback, output limitations of the hearing aids, and loudness discomfort (Bohnert, Nyffeler, & Keilmann, 2010, Turner & Cummings, 1999). Cochlear dead regions further hinder the success of traditional hearing aids, as speech recognition may not improve with increased audibility (Turner & Cummings, 1999). Frequency-lowering algorithms, developed by four major hearing aid manufacturers, attempt to …