Comparison of Two Clinical Devices for the Measurement of Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions in Normal-Hearing Adults.

Background And Objectives: Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are low-intensity sounds generated by the cochlea and associated with the function of the outer hair cells. Since OAE measurements do not require active participation of a listener, OAEs are considered an objective measure of cochlear function. While distortion-product OAEs (DPOAEs) are commonly used in clinical practice, limited information is available on the performance of various clinical devices.

Amplitude Compression for Preventing Rollover at Above-Conversational Speech Levels.

Hearing aids provide nonlinear amplification to improve speech audibility and loudness perception. While more audibility typically increases speech intelligibility at low levels, the same is not true for above-conversational levels, where decreases in intelligibility ("rollover") can occur. In a previous study, we found rollover in speech intelligibility measurements made in quiet for 35 out of 74 test ears with a hearing loss.

Semantic Context Can Mask Intelligibility Declines at Above-Conversational Speech Levels in Normal-Hearing Listeners.

Purpose: While speech audibility generally improves with increasing level, declines in intelligibility are inconsistently observed at above-conversational levels, even in listeners with normal audiograms (NAs). The inconsistent findings could be due to different types of speech materials, ranging from monosyllabic words to everyday sentences, used across studies. Here, we hypothesized that semantic context can "mask" intelligibility declines at high levels by constraining plausible response options.

Corrigendum: Auditory tests for characterizing hearing deficits in listeners with various hearing abilities: The BEAR test battery.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.

Test-retest evaluation of a notched-noise test using consumer-grade mobile audio equipment.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate whether consumer-grade mobile audio equipment can be reliably used as a platform for the notched-noise test, including when the test is conducted outside the laboratory.

Design: Two studies were conducted: Study 1 was a notched-noise masking experiment with three different setups: in a psychoacoustic test booth with a standard laboratory PC; in a psychoacoustic test booth with a mobile device; and in a quiet office room with a mobile device. Study 2 employed the same task as Study 1, but compared circumaural headphones to insert earphones.

Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fittings: BEAR Rationale and Clinical Implementation.

(1) Background: To improve hearing-aid rehabilitation, the Danish 'Better hEAring Rehabilitation' (BEAR) project recently developed methods for individual hearing loss characterization and hearing-aid fitting. Four auditory profiles differing in terms of audiometric hearing loss and supra-threshold hearing abilities were identified. To enable auditory profile-based hearing-aid treatment, a fitting rationale leveraging differences in gain prescription and signal-to-noise (SNR) improvement was developed.

Predicting Aided Outcome With Aided Word Recognition Scores Measured With Linear Amplification at Above-conversational Levels.

Objectives: Many hearing aid (HA) users receive limited benefit from amplification, especially when trying to understand speech in noise, and they often report hearing-related residual activity limitations. Current HA fitting strategies are typically based on pure-tone hearing thresholds only, even though suprathreshold factors have been linked to aided outcomes. Furthermore, clinical measures of speech perception such as word recognition scores (WRSs) are performed without frequency-specific amplification, likely resulting in suboptimal speech audibility and thus inaccurate estimates of suprathreshold hearing abilities.

Revisiting Auditory Profiling: Can Cognitive Factors Improve the Prediction of Aided Speech-in-Noise Outcome?

Hearing aids (HA) are the most common type of rehabilitation treatment for age-related hearing loss. However, HA users often obtain limited benefit from their devices, particularly in noisy environments, and thus many HA candidates do not use them at all. A possible reason for this could be that current HA fittings are audiogram-based, that is, they neglect supra-threshold factors.

Auditory Tests for Characterizing Hearing Deficits in Listeners With Various Hearing Abilities: The BEAR Test Battery.

The Better hEAring Rehabilitation (BEAR) project aims to provide a new clinical profiling tool-a test battery-for hearing loss characterization. Although the loss of sensitivity can be efficiently measured using pure-tone audiometry, the assessment of supra-threshold hearing deficits remains a challenge. In contrast to the classical "attenuation-distortion" model, the proposed BEAR approach is based on the hypothesis that the hearing abilities of a given listener can be characterized along two dimensions, reflecting independent types of perceptual deficits (distortions).

Effects of Noise and Second Language on Conversational Dynamics in Task Dialogue.

This study provides a framework for measuring conversational dynamics between conversational partners (interlocutors). Conversations from 20 pairs of young, normal-hearing, native-Danish talkers were recorded when speaking in both quiet and noise (70 dBA sound pressure level [SPL]) and in Danish and English. Previous studies investigating the intervals from when one talker stops talking to when the next one starts, termed floor-transfer offsets (FTOs), suggest that typical turn-taking requires interlocutors to predict when the current talker will finish their turn.

Influence of Three Auditory Profiles on Aided Speech Perception in Different Noise Scenarios.

Hearing aid (HA) users differ greatly in their speech-in-noise (SIN) outcomes. This could be because the degree to which current HA fittings can address individual listening needs differs across users and listening situations. In two earlier studies, an auditory test battery and a data-driven method were developed for classifying HA candidates into four distinct auditory profiles differing in audiometric hearing loss and suprathreshold hearing abilities.

Comparison of Behavioral and Physiological Measures of the Status of the Cochlear Nonlinearity.

While an audiogram is a useful method of characterizing hearing loss, it has been suggested that including a complementary, suprathreshold measure, for example, a measure of the status of the cochlear active mechanism, could lead to improved diagnostics and improved hearing-aid fitting in individual listeners. While several behavioral and physiological methods have been proposed to measure the cochlear-nonlinearity characteristics, evidence of a good correspondence between them is lacking, at least in the case of hearing-impaired listeners. If this lack of correspondence is due to, for example, limited reliability of one of such measures, it might be a reason for limited evidence of the benefit of measuring peripheral compression.

Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation.

-The clinical characterization of hearing deficits for hearing-aid fitting purposes is typically based on the pure-tone audiogram only. In a previous study, a group of hearing-impaired listeners completed a comprehensive test battery that was designed to tap into different dimensions of hearing abilities. A data-driven analysis of the data yielded four clinically relevant patient sub-populations or "auditory profiles".

Robust Data-Driven Auditory Profiling Towards Precision Audiology.

The sources and consequences of a sensorineural hearing loss are diverse. While several approaches have aimed at disentangling the physiological and perceptual consequences of different etiologies, hearing deficit characterization and rehabilitation have been dominated by the results from pure-tone audiometry. Here, we present a novel approach based on data-driven profiling of perceptual auditory deficits that attempts to represent auditory phenomena that are usually hidden by, or entangled with, audibility loss.

Investigating the Effects of Four Auditory Profiles on Speech Recognition, Overall Quality, and Noise Annoyance With Simulated Hearing-Aid Processing Strategies.

Effective hearing aid (HA) rehabilitation requires personalization of the HA fitting parameters, but in current clinical practice only the gain prescription is typically individualized. To optimize the fitting process, advanced HA settings such as noise reduction and microphone directionality can also be tailored to individual hearing deficits. In two earlier studies, an auditory test battery and a data-driven approach that allow classifying hearing-impaired listeners into four auditory profiles were developed.

Data-Driven Approach for Auditory Profiling and Characterization of Individual Hearing Loss.

Pure-tone audiometry still represents the main measure to characterize individual hearing loss and the basis for hearing-aid fitting. However, the perceptual consequences of hearing loss are typically associated not only with a loss of sensitivity but also with a loss of clarity that is not captured by the audiogram. A detailed characterization of a hearing loss may be complex and needs to be simplified to efficiently explore the specific compensation needs of the individual listener.

Effects of Slow- and Fast-Acting Compression on Hearing-Impaired Listeners' Consonant-Vowel Identification in Interrupted Noise.

There is conflicting evidence about the relative benefit of slow- and fast-acting compression for speech intelligibility. It has been hypothesized that fast-acting compression improves audibility at low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) but may distort the speech envelope at higher SNRs. The present study investigated the effects of compression with a nearly instantaneous attack time but either fast (10 ms) or slow (500 ms) release times on consonant identification in hearing-impaired listeners.

Complex-Tone Pitch Discrimination in Listeners With Sensorineural Hearing Loss.

Physiological studies have shown that noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) enhances the amplitude of envelope coding in auditory-nerve fibers. As pitch coding of unresolved complex tones is assumed to rely on temporal envelope coding mechanisms, this study investigated pitch-discrimination performance in listeners with SNHL. Pitch-discrimination thresholds were obtained for 14 normal-hearing (NH) and 10 hearing-impaired (HI) listeners for sine-phase (SP) and random-phase (RP) complex tones.