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. 2020 Feb;147(2):EL201.
doi: 10.1121/10.0000627.

Noise-induced enhancement of envelope following responses in normal-hearing adults

Curtis J Billings  1 , Samuel Y Gordon  1 , Garnett P McMillan  1 , Frederick J Gallun  1 , Michelle R Molis  1 , Dawn Konrad-Martin  1
Affiliations

Noise-induced enhancement of envelope following responses in normal-hearing adults

Curtis J Billings et al. J Acoust Soc Am. 2020 Feb.

Abstract

Measures of signal-in-noise neural encoding may improve understanding of the hearing-in-noise difficulties experienced by many individuals in everyday life. Usually noise results in weaker envelope following responses (EFRs); however, some studies demonstrate EFR enhancements. This experiment tested whether noise-induced enhancements in EFRs are demonstrated with simple 500- and 1000-Hz pure tones amplitude modulated at 110 Hz. Most of the 12 young normal-hearing participants demonstrated enhanced encoding of the 110-Hz fundamental in a noise background compared to quiet; in contrast, responses at the harmonics were decreased in noise relative to quiet conditions. Possible mechanisms of such an enhancement are discussed.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
(Color online) Grand averaged (n = 12) time waveforms (left) and spectral waveforms (right). Results for the two carriers (500, 1000 Hz) are shown for the three stimulus conditions of 80-dB signal in quiet (s80n00), 80-dB signal with 60 dB of background noise (s80n60), and 50-dB signal in quiet (s50n00). The different stimulus conditions evoke distinct following responses especially at the 110-Hz fundamental. At the second harmonic (220 Hz), only the s80n00 condition appears to have a response above the noise floor. Overall, brainstem encoding of the fundamental is more robust in the presence of background noise when compared to the other conditions.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
(Color online) Spectral waveforms for all conditions and individuals tested. A broad range of response quality is exhibited across all participants with participants 3 and 5 showing a minimal/noisy response. The 110-Hz fundamental response is present in most participants for both carriers while the 220-Hz harmonic response is less robust for the 1000-Hz carrier. The fundamental response in the temporal waveform is enhanced in the presence of noise for most individuals tested.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
(Color online) Individual SNR and SRCC enhancement effects (i.e., a comparison between s80n60 and s80n00 conditions). SNR and SRCC values for each participant are shown in the thin lines, and mean values are shown with the thick black line. The SRCC (right column) and 110-Hz SNR (left column) generally demonstrate an enhancement when noise is included in the stimulus while the 220-Hz SNR (middle column) generally shows a diminished response. The degree of enhancement varies widely across participants and appears less consistent for the 1000-Hz carrier as compared to the 500-Hz carrier.
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