Effect of spatial separation on speech-in-noise comprehension in dyslexic adults

摘要

This study tested the use of binaural cues in adult dyslexic listeners during speech-in-noise comprehension. Participants listened to words presented in three different noise-types (Babble-, Fluctuating- and Stationary-noise) in three different listening configurations: dichotic, monaural and binaural. In controls, we obtained an important informational masking in the monaural configuration mostly attributable to linguistic interferences. This was not observed with binaural noise, suggesting that this interference was suppressed by spatial separation. Dyslexic listeners showed a monaural deficit in Babble, but no deficit of the binaural processing, suggesting compensation based on the use of spatial cues.