Esteban Sebastian Lelo de Larrea Mancera

• Ph.D
• Postdoctoral researcher at Free Agent

Background Recent technological advances in digital assessment of auditory and cognitive function may be used to circumvent the costs associated to screening for cognitive decline in the general population. Pre-clinical cognitive screening could have a transformative impact for preventive care in our increasingly old world population. However, adva...

A growing literature suggests that declines in sensory/perceptual systems predate cognitive declines in aging, and furthermore, they are highly predictive for developing Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s related dementias (ADRD). While vision, hearing, olfaction, and vestibular function have each been shown to be related to ADRD, their causal rel...

Background Research indicates that people with Parkinson’s disease (PwPs) may experience challenges in both peripheral and central auditory processing, although findings are inconsistent across studies. Due to the diversity of auditory measures used, there is a need for standardized, replicable hearing assessments to clarify which aspects of auditi...

A major barrier to the clinical application of psychophysical testing of central auditory processes is the time required to obtain precise estimates of different listening abilities. In this study, we validate a novel adaptive scan (AS) method of threshold estimation that is designed to adapt on a range of values around threshold rather than on a s...

This study validates a new Spanish-language version of the Coordinate Response Measure (CRM) corpus using a well-established measure of spatial release from masking (SRM). Participants were 96 Spanish-speaking young adults without hearing complaints in Mexico City. To present the Spanish-language SRM test, we created new recordings of the CRM with...

Previous research has demonstrated that remote testing of suprathreshold auditory function using distributed technologies can produce results that closely match those obtained in laboratory settings with a specialized, calibrated equipment. This work has facilitated internet-based recruitment of participants and the validation of various behavioral...

Speech-in-Competition (SIC) tasks mimic real-world environments by including background noise and multi-speaker scenarios. However, few SIC tasks have been translated into Spanish and validated. Moreover, the influence of bilingual experience on SIC measures is not well understood. This study aimed to investigate how bilingual experience influences...

A body of research has identified a complex integration of perceptual and cognitive processes that can modulate comprehension of speech-in-competition (SIC). However, it is not well understood how the neurophysiological correlates associated with SIC performance vary under different conditions of attentional load. Here, we analyzed the neurophysiol...

We previously introduced an adaptive psychophysical method called the adaptive scan (AS) that is readily available in the digital app PART. AS presents multiple progressive tracks (e.g., “scans”) each of which comprises a range of stimulus values whose positioning adapts based on a listener´s performance. Each scan is intended to contain trials abo...

Speech-in-Competition (SIC) tasks mimic real-world environments by including background noise and multi-speaker scenarios. However, few SIC tasks have been translated into Spanish and validated. Moreover, the influence of bilingual experience on SIC measures is not well understood. This study aimed to investigate how bilingual experience influences...

Measures typically included in standard audiometric test batteries often fail to correlate with self-reported auditory complaints. This is especially common for patients with normal- or near-normal-hearing sensitivity, like those who are aging or have a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI). This discrepancy likely stems from the use of measures...

Individuals with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) often report difficulties understanding speech in competition that are not well predicted by the pure-tone audiogram. Given that previous work has demonstrated relationships between suprathreshold auditory processing abilities and speech understanding in competition, the current study...

https://pascongress.omnibooksonline.com/#p=117 Objective: To analyze if the relationship between neurophysiological and neuropsychological features in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) serves as biomarker and allows to identifying people with higher risk to developing dementia (D-EP). Background: Cognitive impairment (CI) is a highly prevalent...

https://pascongress.omnibooksonline.com/#p=36

Purpose Standard clinical audiologic assessment is limited in its ability to capture variance in self-reported hearing difficulty. Additionally, the costs associated with clinical testing in audiology create financial barriers for hearing health care in developing countries like Mexico. This study used an open-source Spanish-language tool called PA...

The measurement of audition has historically focused on the detection of pure tones; however, it has been proposed that a thorough evaluation should include measures of language reception in competition. The auditory challenge in the real world occurs mostly in competitive environments that require further auditory processing, and not only rely on...

Service members and Veterans are regularly exposed to environmental factors that have been shown to contribute to hearing deficits. These listening deficits may present as auditory processing complaints such as difficulty listening in background noise in the absence of a peripheral hearing loss. The public app, Listen: An Auditory Training Experien...

Accessibility issues, especially in developing countries, have prevented the evaluation of diverse hearing abilities beyond the pure tone audiogram in the general population. PART is a free-access automated auditory measurement tool that can address accessibility issues by providing a wide variety of auditory psychophysical measures in multiple lan...

Purpose Difficulty understanding speech in noise is a common communication problem. Clinical tests of speech in noise differ considerably from real-world listening and offer patients limited intrinsic motivation to perform well. In order to design a test that captures motivational aspects of real-world communication, this study investigated effects...

Objective Neurophysiological studies exploring involuntary attention have reported that electroencephalographic (EEG) measures can indicate impaired neural processing from initial stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Since involuntary attention is regulated by right hemisphere networks and PD generally initiates its motor symptomatology unilaterally...

Objective: Neurophysiological studies exploring involuntary attention have reported that electroen- cephalographic (EEG) measures can indicate impaired neural processing from initial stages of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Since involuntary attention is regulated by right hemisphere networks and PD generally initiates its motor symptomatology unilatera...

Remote testing of auditory function can be transformative to both basic research and hearing healthcare; however, historically, many obstacles have limited remote collection of reliable and valid auditory psychometric data. Here, we report performance on a battery of auditory processing tests using a remotely administered system, Portable Automatic...

(1) Background: Difficulty hearing in noise is exacerbated in older adults. Older adults are more likely to have audiometric hearing loss, although some individuals with normal pure‐tone audiograms also have difficulty perceiving speech in noise. Additional variables also likely account for speech understanding in noise. It has been suggested that...

Portable automated rapid testing of central auditory processing measures implemented in the app PART (https://braingamecenter.ucr.edu/games/p-a-r-t/) were adapted for Spanish-speaking populations. This adaptation included the generation of a corpus equivalent to the CRM to test a speech-on- speech masking task, in addition to frequency modulation t...

No PDF available ABSTRACT Portable automated rapid testing of central auditory processing measures implemented in the app PART (https://braingamecenter.ucr.edu/games/p-a-r-t/) were adapted for Spanish-speaking populations. This adaptation included the generation of a corpus equivalent to the CRM to test a speech-on-speech masking task, in addition...

Understanding speech in the presence of acoustical competition is a major complaint of those with hearing difficulties. Here, a novel perceptual learning game was tested for its effectiveness in reducing difficulties with hearing speech in competition. The game was designed to train a mixture of auditory processing skills thought to underlie speech...

We validate an adaptive algorithm designed for efficient psychophysical testing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has raised awareness of the need for robust and reliable remote testing of auditory function. Here, we examine how the recently introduced Portable Automatic Rapid Testing (PART) system–validated to produce precise psychoacoustical data in consumer hardware [Larrea-Mancera et al., JASA, 2020]—performs when data are collected r...

Central auditory processing measures across the lifespan

Hearing speech in competition is a major complaint in those who suffer from hearing loss. Here we investigate a novel perceptual learning game that is designed to train perceptual skills thought to underlie speech in competition, such as spectral-temporal processing and sound localization, under conditions of quiet and in noise. Thirty young normal...

This study aims to determine the degree to which Portable Automated Rapid Testing (PART), a freely available program running on a tablet computer, is capable of reproducing standard laboratory results. Undergraduate students were assigned to one of three within-subject conditions that examined repeatability of performance on a battery of psychoacou...

Multisensory information can benefit perceptual, memory, and decision-making processes. These benefits commonly manifest in superior detection and discrimination of multisensory stimuli, as well as improved perception and subsequent memory of unisensory representation of an object previously encoded in a multisensory context. However, the vast majo...

We describe data collected using Portable Automated Rapid Testing (PART), a freely-available application for psychoacoustical testing that harnesses commercially available tablet computer technology to translate current psychophysical knowledge into clinical practice. PART tests included the detection of tones in noise with and without spectral gap...

Involuntary attention allows for the detection and processing of novel and potentially relevant stimuli that lie outside of cognitive focus. These processes comprise change detection in sensory contexts, automatic orientation toward this change, and the selection of adaptive responses, including reorientation to the original goal in cases when the...

Exploring tactile perceptual learning stimulus property mediation of transfer of learning effects.

This presentation will describe data collected using a freely available procedure for psychoacoustical testing that harnesses commercially available tablet computer technology to address the current gap between (1) modern auditory neuroscience and psychophysics and (2) current clinically available tests of hearing. Portable Automated Rapid Testing...

Given the clear role of sensory feedback in successful motor control, there is a growing interest in integrating substitutionary tactile feedback into robotic limb devices. To enhance the utility of such feedback, here we investigate how to best improve the limited generalization of tactile learning across body parts and stimulus properties. Specif...

Drift diffusion models allow the combination of accuracy and reaction time data to better reveal multi-sensory benefits when they occur.

Music represents a complex form of human cognition. To what extent our auditory system is attuned to music is yet to be clearly understood. Our principal aim was to determine whether the neurophysiological operations underlying pre-attentive auditory change detection (N1enhancement (N1e)/Mismatch Negativity (MMN)) and the subsequent involuntary att...

The aim of this article is to evaluate the potential use of biodiesel produced from waste cooking oil in Mexico City. The study is divided in two main areas: the analysis of a waste cooking oil collection pilot project conducted in food markets of a Mexico City region; and the exhaust emissions performance of biodiesel blends measured in buses of t...

This paper provides examples of current and possible future applications of Csound's binaural 3D-sound opcodes, in particular, hrtfmove2[1], hrtfearly and hrtfreverb[2]. It briefly describes punctual systems that have been developed and may be used for future research in the Cognitive Sciences, particularly in the areas of multimodal integration, c...

The following study analyzes the relationship between water and energy in Mexico, from the standpoint of water being needed for energy production and use, as well as energy being needed for diverse water uses. The extraction and processing of fuels, along with electricity generation, account for most of the water consumption and pollution in the en...