Enhanced envelope coding following acoustic trauma is detrimental to neural coding of speech in noise

Abstract

People with hearing loss struggle understanding speech in noisy backgrounds. Speech-intelligibility models highlight the importance of slow-varying envelopes of speech and noise; however, the physiological basis of impaired perception remains unclear. We provide neurophysiological evidence that, although acoustic trauma enhances both speech and noise envelopes, disruptions in cochlear tonotopicity preferentially enhance neural responses to noise in noisy speech. These results provide mechanistic insights into everyday-communication challenges created by hearing loss.