Output performance of the novel active transcutaneous bone conduction implant Sentio at different stimulation sites.

Objectives: The output performance of a novel semi-implantable transcutaneous bone conduction device was compared to an established percutaneous bone-anchored hearing system device using cadaver heads. The influence of actuator position, tissue growth below the actuator and mounting it on the surface or in a flattened bone bed on the performance of the implanted actuator was investigated.

Materials And Methods: The percutaneous and the new transcutaneous device were sequentially implanted at two sites in five human cadaver heads: 55 mm superior-posterior to the ear canal opening (position A) and, closer to the cochlea, about 20 mm inferior-posterior to the ear canal opening behind the pinna on the mastoid (position B).

Benefit of Higher Maximum Force Output on Listening Effort in Bone-Anchored Hearing System Users: A Pupillometry Study.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare listening effort, as estimated via pupillary response, during a speech-in-noise test in bone-anchored hearing system (BAHS) users wearing three different sound processors. The three processors, Ponto Pro (PP), Ponto 3 (P3), and Ponto 3 SuperPower (P3SP), differ in terms of maximum force output (MFO) and MFO algorithm. The hypothesis was that listeners would allocate lower listening effort with the P3SP than with the PP, as a consequence of a higher MFO and, hence, fewer saturation artifacts in the signal.

Development of a Novel Bone Conduction Verification Tool Using a Surface Microphone: Validation With Percutaneous Bone Conduction Users.

Objectives: To determine if a newly-designed, forehead-mounted surface microphone would yield equivalent estimates of audibility when compared to audibility measured with a skull simulator for adult bone conduction users.

Design: Data was analyzed using a within subjects, repeated measures design. There were two different sensors (skull simulator and surface microphone) measuring the same hearing aid programmed to the same settings for all subjects.

Own voice qualities (OVQ) in hearing-aid users: there is more than just occlusion.

Objective: Hearing-aid users' problems with their own voice caused by occlusion are well known. Conversely, it remains essentially undocumented whether hearing-aid users expected not to have occlusion-related problems experience own-voice issues.

Design: To investigate this topic, a dedicated Own Voice Qualities (OVQ) questionnaire was developed and used in two experiments with stratified samples.

Observations on hearing aid users' strategies for controlling the level of their own voice.

Background: Evidence suggests that hearing-aid users have difficulties with own-voice level control, most likely because their auditory feedback is affected by hearing-aid amplification.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate how changes to auditory feedback affect the voice level of hearing-aid users.

Research Design: A correlational study was set up to investigate the relation between voice level and hearing-aid amplification.