Perceptual integration between target speech and target-speech reflection reduces masking for target-speech recognition in younger adults and older adults

This study evaluated unmasking functions of perceptual integration of target speech and simulated target-speech reflection, which were presented by two spatially separated loudspeakers. In both younger-adult listeners with normal hearing and older-adult listeners in the early stages of presbycusis, reducing the time interval between target speech and target-reflection simulation (inter-target interval, ITI) from 64 to 0 ms not only progressively enhanced perceptual integration of target-speech signals, but also progressively released target speech from either speech masking or noise masking. When the signal-to-noise ratio was low, the release from speech masking was significantly larger than the release from noise masking in both younger listeners and older listeners, but the longest ITI at which a significant release from speech masking occurred was significantly shorter in older listeners than in younger listeners. These results suggest that in reverberant environments with multi-talker speech, perceptual integration between the direct sound wave and correlated reflections, which facilitates perceptual segregation of various sources, is critical for unmasking attended speech. The age-related reduction of the ITI range for releasing speech from speech masking may be one of the causes for the speech-recognition difficulties experienced by older listeners in such adverse environments.