Transmission Charactaristics of Articuration in Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Application of Transient Matrices and Analysis of Information Loss

Abstract

For the evaluation of transmission efficiency of speech discrimination test, an articulation score is generally used. The articulation score, however, contains no specific information on what syllable are pronounced about speech recognition in patients with sensorineural hearing loss. Therefore, we analyzed that data obtained from speech discrimination test by transient matrices. Furthermore, we analyzed speech discrimination ability of patients with sensorineural hearing loss by application of index of information loss which is called “conditional entropy”. The conditional entropy is the probability of joint occurrence of input and output for information. Patients with sensorineural hearing loss of age groups of 10-34 years, 35-64 years and over 65 years were analyzed separately. Analysis of information loss was efficient to examine the recognition performance for consonant and vowel parts. The pattern of confusion in transient matrices was more prominent in the over 65 years of age group than the younger patient groupes. Furthermore, in analysis of information loss at +40dB discrimination, the over 65 years group showed as twice equivocation as much that of the 10-34 years group.