In clinical settings, hearing perception is typically assessed using audiometric tests administered in a controlled environment. To date, these tests are administered in silence or in the presence of noise from fixed sources at an arbitrarily predetermined signal-to-noise ratio. These assessment situations are not representative of the functional difficulties encountered by people with hearing loss or Auditory Processing Disorder in their daily lives. In real life, "soundscapes" are diverse. Hearing assessment and rehabilitation should include the child's everyday environments as well as their lifestyle habits. The Immersion 360 System (Virtual reality system) was developed specifically to virtually reproduce complex everyday sound experiences with realistic noise types and sound presentation conditions, enabling the assessment of auditory perception under test conditions similar to those encountered in daily life. Some of the sound environments offered by this innovative system have been standardized for adults. No standards exist for children, and we have limited knowledge regarding the development of speech perception skills in noise during childhood and adolescence. It seems essential to measure the age-related development of speech perception in realistic sound environments in order to establish reference data for children and adolescents. This work will, through functional assessments of the auditory system and linguistic tests (speech perception in noise), provide a better understanding of the functional development of the central auditory system for speech perception in noise. The results collected from normo-hearing individuals in the age groups of interest will provide a clinical baseline for comparison with patients of the same age.
This is a single-center, descriptive, cross-sectional, preliminary study to describe the age-related distribution of speech perception scores in noise. The study will be non-randomized and conducted on healthy, hearing minor volunteers. The inclusion period will be 12 months, with each participant spending 1.5 to 2 hours in the study.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
150
The children will be placed at the center of the 360 Immersion System. The four sound environments (school cafeteria: loud and constant noise; playground: fluctuating noise; street: ambient sound without speech; multi-voice noise or SpeechInNoise) will be played one after the other, and two lists of 20 sentences will be presented to the child in each environment, without the possibility of repetition, at the actual signal-to-noise ratio. The child will have to repeat the sentences. The "cafeteria," "playground," and street recordings will be played again to the child, with a different signal-to-noise ratio, making it more difficult for the child to perceive speech. The session lasts approximately 45 minutes, but to limit fatigue for our young participants, a 15-minute break will be offered. Children can also request a break themselves if they become tired. A certificate will be awarded to each of our healthy volunteers.
ASEI, Unité Ressources Audition
Ramonville-Saint-Agne, France
percentage of correct word identification
Time frame: 2 hours
average of auditory data
Time frame: 2 hours
difference between a natural sound environment vs. a SpeechInNoise environment
Time frame: 2 hours
Difference between scores obtained with the 360 Immersion System and scores from the literature
Time frame: 2 hours
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