Validation of the Pediatric Spatial Hearing Questionnaire.

Purpose: Spatial hearing is necessary for adequate sound awareness and speech perception abilities; however, research indicates that children have difficulties on these spatial hearing tasks that affect functioning in their daily environment. The purpose of this study was to validate a pediatric version of the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire (P-SHQ) for determining binaural hearing benefits and spatial hearing ability in children.

Method: We recruited parents and guardians of 68 children ages kindergarten through eighth grade to participate.

Use of a Smartphone App for Cochlear Implant Patients With Tinnitus.

Purpose Smartphone apps for tinnitus relief are now emerging; however, research supporting their use and effectiveness is lacking. Research has shown that Tinnitus Therapy sounds intended for individuals with acoustic hearing provide relief to some patients using cochlear implants (CIs) with tinnitus. Here, we evaluated the use and acceptability of a smartphone app to help CI patients with tinnitus.

Complaints of People with Hyperacusis.

Background: Hyperacusis is a prevalent auditory disorder that causes significant distress and negatively affects quality of life for many patients. Patients with hyperacusis often have different complaints about the sounds and situations that they experience. Audiologists may have few patients with hyperacusis, and a limited understanding of the sounds and situations that are reported to be challenging by their patients.

Programming a Cochlear Implant for Tinnitus Suppression.

Background: Electrical stimulation of the cochlea to treat tinnitus has been explored for decades. However, few studies have investigated the most salient programming parameters for tinnitus suppression in cochlear implant (CI) patients.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to review the available CI programming parameters for tinnitus suppression and to consider possible clinical research designs for selecting the optimal programming parameters for CI patients.

Tinnitus Sound Therapy Trial Shows Effectiveness for Those with Tinnitus.

Background: It is well accepted among clinicians that maskers and hearing aids combined with counseling are generally helpful to tinnitus patients, but there are few controlled studies exploring the efficacy of maskers alone to decrease the prominence of tinnitus.

Purpose: We investigated the benefit of maskers for patients with chronic, bothersome tinnitus.

Research Design: Crossover single-participant design, where each participant served as their own control.

Establishing a Group Educational Session for Hyperacusis Patients.

Purpose Audiologists should be treating hyperacusis patients. However, it can be difficult to know where to begin because treatment protocols and evidence-based treatment studies are lacking. A good place to start in any tinnitus and hyperacusis clinic is to incorporate a group educational session.

Tinnitus: How Partners Can Help?

Purpose Tinnitus can be distressing for sufferers, but for those who do not have tinnitus, it is difficult to understand what it is like. We attempted to gain an understanding of the knowledge and misconceptions of sufferers and their partners about tinnitus. Method Two different websites were created with surveys, 1 for tinnitus sufferers and the other for their partners.

Tinnitus Suppression in Cochlear Implant Patients Using a Sound Therapy App.

Purpose: The use of acoustic stimuli to reduce the prominence of tinnitus has been used for decades. Counseling and tinnitus sound therapy options are not currently widespread for cochlear implant (CI) users. The goal of this study was to determine whether tinnitus therapy sounds created for individuals with acoustic hearing may also benefit CI users.

Listening Effort Measured in Adults with Normal Hearing and Cochlear Implants.

Background: Studies have examined listening effort in individuals with hearing loss to determine the extent of the impairment. Regarding cochlear implants (CIs), results suggest that listening effort is improved using bilateral CIs compared to unilateral CIs. Few studies have investigated listening effort and outcomes related to the hybrid CI.

Development of a Shortened Version of the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire (SHQ-S) for Screening Spatial-Hearing Ability.

Purpose: The Spatial Hearing Questionnaire (SHQ) was developed to address how to measure spatial-hearing ability in complex listening situations (Tyler, Perreau, & Ji, 2009). It has been translated and validated into various languages, including Chinese, Dutch, French, and Persian. Although the SHQ contains only 24 items, it could be time-consuming in a busy clinic to administer.

Validation of the Chinese Translation of the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire and Its Short Form.

Purpose: Few questionnaires address how to measure spatial hearing ability in complex listening situations. The purpose of the study was (a) to validate the Chinese translation of the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire (C-SHQ) among Chinese participants and (b) to provide a shortened version for the purpose of clinical screening.

Method: This was a cross-sectional study.

Self-reported spatial hearing abilities across different cochlear implant profiles.

Purpose: The goal of this study was to determine how self-reported spatial hearing abilities differ across various cochlear implant (CI) profiles and to examine the degree of subjective benefit following cochlear implantation across different groups of CI users.

Method: This was a retrospective study of subjective spatial hearing ability of CI recipients. The subjects consisted of 99 unilateral CI users, 49 bilateral CI users, 32 subjects with a CI and contralateral hearing aid (bimodal users), and 37 short-electrode CI users.

Development and validation of the tinnitus primary function questionnaire.

Purpose: To create a questionnaire focused on the primary activities impaired by tinnitus and therefore more sensitive to treatments.

Method: Questions were developed on (a) emotions, (b) hearing, (c) sleep, and (d) concentration. A 20-item questionnaire was administered to 158 patients.

The spatial hearing questionnaire: data from individuals with normal hearing.

Purpose: Although a number of questionnaires are available to assess hearing aid benefit and general hearing disability, relatively few investigate spatial hearing ability in more complex listening situations. The aim of this study was to document the performance of individuals with normal hearing using the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire (SHQ; Tyler, Perreau, & Ji, 2009) and to compare performance with published data from cochlear implant (CI) users.

Method: Fifty-one participants with normal hearing participated.

The contribution of a frequency-compression hearing aid to contralateral cochlear implant performance.

Background: Frequency-lowering signal processing in hearing aids has re-emerged as an option to improve audibility of the high frequencies by expanding the input bandwidth. Few studies have investigated the usefulness of the scheme as an option for bimodal users (i.e.

Effects of lower frequency-to-electrode allocations on speech and pitch perception with the hybrid short-electrode cochlear implant.

Because some users of a Hybrid short-electrode cochlear implant (CI) lose their low-frequency residual hearing after receiving the CI, we tested whether increasing the CI speech processor frequency allocation range to include lower frequencies improves speech perception in these individuals. A secondary goal was to see if pitch perception changed after experience with the new CI frequency allocation. Three subjects who had lost all residual hearing in the implanted ear were recruited to use an experimental CI frequency allocation with a lower frequency cutoff than their current clinical frequency allocation.

The effect of reducing the number of electrodes on spatial hearing tasks for bilateral cochlear implant recipients.

Background: Many studies have documented the effect of reducing spectral information for speech perception in listeners with normal hearing and hearing impairment. While it is understood that more spectral bands are needed for unilateral cochlear implant listeners to perform well on more challenging listening tasks such as speech perception in noise, it is unclear how reducing the number of spectral bands or electrodes in cochlear implants influences the ability to localize sound or understand speech with spatially separate noise sources.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to measure the effect of reducing the number of electrodes for patients with bilateral cochlear implants on spatial hearing tasks.

An attempt to improve bilateral cochlear implants by increasing the distance between electrodes and providing complementary information to the two ears.

Objectives: The purpose of this investigation was to determine if adult bilateral cochlear implant recipients could benefit from using a speech processing strategy in which the input spectrum was interleaved among electrodes across the two implants.

Design: Two separate experiments were conducted. In both experiments, subjects were tested using a control speech processing strategy and a strategy in which the full input spectrum was filtered so that only the output of half of the filters was audible to one implant, while the output of the alternative filters was audible to the other implant.

Benefits of localization and speech perception with multiple noise sources in listeners with a short-electrode cochlear implant.

Background: Research suggests that for individuals with significant low-frequency hearing, implantation of a short-electrode cochlear implant may provide benefits of improved speech perception abilities. Because this strategy combines acoustic and electrical hearing within the same ear while at the same time preserving low-frequency residual acoustic hearing in both ears, localization abilities may also be improved. However, very little research has focused on the localization and spatial hearing abilities of users with a short-electrode cochlear implant.

Validation of the Spatial Hearing Questionnaire.

Objectives: Subjective questionnaires are informative in understanding the difficulties faced by patients with hearing loss. Our intent was to establish and validate a new questionnaire that encompasses situations emphasizing binaural hearing. The Spatial Hearing Questionnaire is a self-report assessment tool with eight subscales representing questions; pertaining to the perception of male, female, and children's voices; music in quiet; source localization; understanding speech in quiet; and understanding speech in noise.

A daily alternating method for comparing different signal-processing strategies in hearing aids and in cochlear implants.

Background: Although we always want to select the best signal-processing strategy for our hearing-aid and cochlear-implant patients, no efficient and valid procedure is available. Comparisons in the office are without listening experience, and short-term take-home trials are likely influenced by the order of strategies tried.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate a new procedure for comparing signal-processing strategies whereby patients listen with one strategy one day and another strategy the next day.

Selection strategies for binaural and monaural cochlear implantation.

Purpose: We propose theoretical guidelines for cochlear implant selection criteria in adults and children that emphasize the contribution of each ear to the binaural advantage. The guidelines outline options for implanting one ear only, implanting one ear plus use of a contralateral hearing aid, and implanting both ears.

Method: Our method for selecting the best cochlear implant or hearing aid outcome is derived from the amount of usable hearing of the patient.