Implementation and Long-Term Evaluation of a Hearing Aid Supported Tinnitus Treatment Using Notched Environmental Sounds.

Recent work has shown that sharp spectral edges in acoustic stimuli might have advantageous effects in the treatment of tonal tinnitus. In the course of this paper, we evaluate the long-term effects of spectrally notched hearing aids on the subjective tinnitus distress. By merging recent experimental work with a computational tinnitus model, we modified the commercially available behind-the-ear hearing aids so that a frequency band of 0.

Free-field evoked auditory brainstem responses in cochlear implant users.

The importance of binaural cues in auditory stream formation and sound source segregation is widely accepted. When treating one ear with a cochlear implant (CI) the peripheral auditory system gets partially replaced and processing delays get added potentially, thus important interaural time differences get altered. However, these effects are not fully understood, leaving a lack of systematic binaural fitting strategies with respect to an optimal binaural fusion.

Neurodynamic evaluation of hearing aid features using EEG correlates of listening effort.

In this study, we propose a novel estimate of listening effort using electroencephalographic data. This method is a translation of our past findings, gained from the evoked electroencephalographic activity, to the oscillatory EEG activity. To test this technique, electroencephalographic data from experienced hearing aid users with moderate hearing loss were recorded, wearing hearing aids.

Detection of binaural interaction in free-field evoked auditory brainstem responses by time-scale representations.

The so called β-wave of the binaural interaction component (BIC) in auditory brainstem responses (ABR) has been shown to be an objective measure for binaural interaction (BI). This component is the arithmetical difference between the sum of the monaurally evoked ABRs and the binaurally evoked ABR. Unfortunately, these neural responses are known to be very fragile and as a result the calculated BIC.

A multidisciplinary systematic review of the treatment for chronic idiopathic tinnitus.

The majority of tinnitus patients are affected by chronic idiopathic tinnitus, and almost 60 different treatment modalities have been reported. The present study is a multidisciplinary systematic analysis of the evidence for the different forms of treatment for chronic tinnitus. The results are used to form the basis of an S3 guideline.

Evaluation of an objective listening effort measure in a selective, multi-speaker listening task using different hearing aid settings.

Speaker recognition in a multi-speaker environment is a complex listening task that requires effort to be solved. Especially people with hearing loss show an increased listening effort in demanding listening situations compared to normal hearing people. However, a standardized method to quantify listening effort does not exist yet.

Dysfunctional long term habituation to exogeneous tinnitus-matched sounds in patients with high tinnitus distress.

During the last years, the demand of accurate diagnostic tools for individualized tinnitus treatment gradually increased. Today several different psychometric instruments for the estimation of the patients degree of decompensation with clinical relevance have emerged. All of these tools are questionnaires for a subjective self-assessment and have deficits in comparability due to severe differences in their factor structure in the anamnesis.

Objective assessment of listening effort in the oscillatory EEG: comparison of different hearing aid configurations.

An objective estimate of listening effort could support the hearing aid fitting procedure. Most of the digital hearing aids have already hearing aid settings which are supposed to reduce the listening effort, but the effects of these settings on the individual's listening effort remain unclear. In this study, we propose an objective estimate of listening effort using electroencephalographic data.

Neural correlates of listening effort related factors: influence of age and hearing impairment.

In the last years, there has been a rising interest to find an objective method to estimate listening effort. Previously, we have shown that the wavelet phase synchronization stability (WPSS), gained from the instantaneous phase of auditory late responses (ALRs), could serve as a feasible measure for listening effort related factors. In the current study, we examined if the WPSS reflects the listening effort in young as well as middle-aged subjects and in persons with a different degree of hearing loss.

The effects of age and hearing impairment on the extraction of listening effort correlates.

In clinical practice, an objective method to assess listening effort is still not available. The benefit of such a measure would be to reduce the listening effort in hearing impaired persons by an adequate adaption of their personal hearing aids. In foregoing studies, we have shown that the wavelet phase synchronization stability (WPSS) of auditory late responses (ALRs) could serve as a feasible measure of listening effort.

Alterations in Event Related Potentials (ERP) associated with tinnitus distress and attention.

Tinnitus related distress corresponds to different degrees of attention paid to the tinnitus. Shifting attention to a signal other than the tinnitus is therefore particularly difficult for patients with high tinnitus related distress. As attention effects on Event Related Potentials (ERP) have been shown this should be reflected in ERP measurements (N100, phase locking).