Trends in Hearing最新文献

{"title":"The Effect of Head Movements on Front-Back Discrimination and Sound Externalization With Hearing Aids.","authors":"Tobias Greif, Virginia Best, Robert Baumgartner","doi":"10.1177/23312165261480035","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261480035","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Head movements are intuitive, often spontaneous, behaviours that help us localize the origin of a sound source. In normal-hearing listeners, head movements during sound presentation are known to improve localization performance in both horizontal and vertical dimensions, as well as front-back discrimination. The perceived externalization of sound sources also improves with head motion. Hearing-aid users, especially users with behind-the-ear microphone positioning, exhibit diminished front-back localization abilities as well as degraded externalization under static conditions. The extent to which active head movements can overcome the spatial degradations introduced by hearing aids remains unclear. The current study aimed to provide quantitative data on this issue. Participants with normal hearing were fitted with low-gain hearing aids and presented with speech stimuli from a loudspeaker directly in front or behind. They performed front-back discrimination, rated perceived externalization, and did so with or without head movements. We hypothesized that head movements would fully resolve front-back confusions and restore externalization ratings to unaided levels. Instead, head movements were more effective in resolving front-back confusions than externalization breakdowns. We conclude that hearing-aid related spatial distortions may not be fully overcome by active head movements and note large inter-individual differences in the relationship between externalization and front-back discrimination.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261480035"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13525295/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148841793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Effects of Source-Specific Dynamic Range Compression on Sound Quality for Individuals With Hearing Loss.","authors":"Varsha Rallapalli, Catherine Steinwachs, Ryan Corey","doi":"10.1177/23312165261471119","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261471119","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of source-specific (independent) and conventional dynamic range compression (DRC) on sound quality ratings among listeners with hearing loss when ground-truth signals are available to the compressor. Twenty listeners with mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss rated the sound quality on different subscales for two types of signal mixtures: speech in music (Overall Sound Quality, Speech Clarity, and Music Pleasantness) and speech in noise (Overall Sound Quality, Speech Clarity, and Noisiness) at three speech-to-background ratios (SBR: -10, 0, +10 dB). Speech in music was a 10-second-long spontaneous speech excerpt with a duration-matched classical music excerpt. Speech in noise had the same speech signal mixed with speech-shaped noise. Conventional DRC applied a 50-ms release time to the mixed signals, whereas independent DRC applied a 50-ms release time for speech and a 2000-ms release time for music or noise <i>before</i> mixing. The control conditions included linear amplification applied to the signals before and after mixing. Independent DRC resulted in higher overall sound quality, music pleasantness, and lower noisiness ratings than conventional DRC, regardless of SBR. Independent DRC resulted in higher speech clarity ratings than conventional DRC at lower SBRs. The results are generally supported by acoustic metrics, indicating more effective compression and higher output SBRs, especially at lower input SBRs, and reduced across-source modulation correlations with independent DRC. These findings extend the literature on the advantages of independent compression of sound sources by demonstrating sound quality benefits across multiple sub-scales for listeners with hearing loss across music and noise backgrounds.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261471119"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13379648/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148473648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Functional Plasticity in Auditory and Visual Discrimination Processing in Patients with Single-Sided Deafness: An EEG Study.","authors":"Qiaoyu Liu, Yufei Qiao, Min Zhu, Jiayan Yang, Wen Sun, Yaohan Chen, Saiyi Jiao, Hang Shen, Yingying Shang","doi":"10.1177/23312165251413850","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165251413850","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Single-sided deafness (SSD) is a typical condition of partial auditory deprivation. Total auditory deprivation triggers cross-modal neural reorganization, but in patients with partial hearing deprivation, how residual auditory function is balanced with the compensatory plasticity of other sensory modalities remains unclear. Previous studies have reported conflicting findings, potentially due to differences in study populations or task designs. Here, we investigated hierarchical neural processing in a homogeneous cohort of 37 congenital SSD patients (31.6 ± 6.5 years, 18 males) and 32 normal-hearing (NH) controls (30.6 ± 7.3 years, 14 males) using both auditory and visual oddball tasks with electroencephalography (EEG). In the auditory task, SSD patients presented reduced amplitudes of early exogenous components (N1, P2) and mismatch negativity (MMN), but preserved late endogenous components (N2, P3), compared with NH controls. Conversely, in the visual task, SSD patients presented increased early visual N1 amplitudes with intact visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) and endogenous components (N2, P3). No latency differences in the above components were observed. These results reveal a difference in plasticity between lower- and higher-level processing. Our findings indicate that functional plasticity in SSD patients occurs predominantly at sensory stages and is characterized by diminished auditory and compensatory elevated visual neural activity, whereas higher-level discrimination processing in either modality is largely unaffected. These findings clarify prior discrepancies, establish a hierarchical framework for understanding neuroplasticity in partial sensory deprivation, and have implications for rehabilitation strategies for SSD patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165251413850"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12816557/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145999400","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Short-Term Statistical Learning Mitigates the Ill-Posed Problem of Sound Localization.","authors":"Robert Baumgartner, Roberto Barumerli, Benedikt Brands, Piotr Majdak","doi":"10.1177/23312165261465030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23312165261465030","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The dynamic interplay between source-specific spectral features and spatial cues is central to auditory inference. While sagittal-plane localization relies on direction-dependent spectral cues shaped by the listener's anatomy, sound sources themselves introduce spectral patterns that can obscure these cues, creating an ill-posed inference problem. We tested whether listeners can mitigate that problem by statistically learning a source's spectral shape over the short term. In a free-field localization task, participants localized ripple-spectrum sounds under two conditions: within a block, source spectra were either fixed (<i>predictable</i>) or randomized (<i>unpredictable</i>). Predictability reduced large-scale localization errors - such as front-back reversals and quadrant confusions - by up to 5% within minutes. These findings demonstrate that listeners exploit spectral consistency across stimulus history to adapt spatial decoding, providing empirical evidence for short-term updating of spectral priors and underscoring the adaptive nature of auditory inference.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261465030"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148413380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Integrative Modeling of Individual Differences Recognizing Speech in Noise by Hearing-Impaired Adults.","authors":"Robert A Lutfi, Lindsey Kummerer, Jungmee Lee, Varsha Rallapalli","doi":"10.1177/23312165261423041","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261423041","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Difficulty recognizing speech in noise is a common complaint among those with sensorineural hearing loss. Yet the degree of difficulty differs widely among individuals, often unrelated to the clinical gold standard for evaluating hearing, the pure-tone audiogram. Research has isolated both auditory and nonauditory factors responsible for these differences, but these factors do not operate in isolation. In the present work, a generic computational model involving simultaneous cue sensitivity, cue reliance, and decision noise provided an integrative framework for identifying sources of between-listener variance not accounted for by the audiogram. The framework was applied to performance differences within and between normal-hearing (NH) and hearing-impaired (HI) groups in the processing of linguistic, acoustic, and statistical cues supporting speech recognition in noise. The primary source of performance differences <i>between</i> groups was differences in sensitivity for the subtle, but largely stationary acoustic cues required for <i>speech recognition</i>. The overwhelming source of performance differences <i>within</i> groups was differences in decision noise associated with more salient, but highly variable statistical cues for <i>speech separation</i>. For speech separation, HI listeners placed far greater reliance than NH listeners on the one cue for which they were most sensitive. HI listeners, but not NH listeners, benefitted by shifting all acoustic information to this most relied on cue. The results provide preliminary support for the feasibility of integrative modeling as a means of evaluating the collective influence of factors affecting speech recognition in noise.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261423041"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12905081/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146183051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Identifying Hearing Difficulty Moments in Conversational Audio.","authors":"Jack Collins, Adrian Buzea, Chris Collier, Alejandro Ballesta Rosen, Julian Maclaren, Richard F Lyon, Kelly Miles, Simon Carlile","doi":"10.1177/23312165261446379","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261446379","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Individuals regularly experience <i>Hearing Difficulty Moments</i> in everyday conversation. Identifying Hearing Difficulty Moments has particular significance in the field of hearing assistive technology where timely interventions are key for real-time hearing assistance. In this article, we propose and compare machine learning solutions for the temporal detection of segments containing Hearing Difficulty Moments in conversational audio. We show that audio language models, through their multimodal reasoning capabilities, can achieve state-of-the-art results for this task, significantly outperforming a simple automatic speech recognition (ASR) hotword heuristic and a more conventional fine-tuning approach with Wav2Vec, an audio-only input architecture that is state-of-the-art for ASR.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261446379"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13121483/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147786448","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Lifetime Noise Exposure and Its Interaction With Ageing: Effects on Audiometric Thresholds, Speech-In-Noise Perception, and Tinnitus for Palestinian Workers.","authors":"Adnan M Shehabi, Hannah Guest, Amal Abu Kteish, Walaa Srour, Christopher J Plack, Garreth Prendergast","doi":"10.1177/23312165261470234","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261470234","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Noise-induced and age-related hearing loss involve partially similar pathophysiology, but their combined effects remain poorly understood, especially in under-regulated occupational settings. This study investigated the independent and interaction effects of lifetime noise exposure and age on audiometric, speech-in-noise, and tinnitus outcomes in Palestinian workers. Ninety-eight adult workers aged 18 - 75 years completed standard (0.25 - 8 kHz) and extended high-frequency (10 - 14 kHz) audiometry, Arabic diotic and antiphasic digits-in-noise (DIN) testing, and an Arabic Noise Exposure Structured Interview. Regression models tested age × noise interactions, adjusting for sex (and education for DIN), with Bonferroni-Holm correction applied for multiple comparisons. The protocol was pre-registered (Open Science Framework; https://osf.io/v2c9z). There was no significant age × noise interaction for standard audiometric thresholds (3 - 8 kHz; β = 0.23 dB/year per log₁₀[noise], 95% CI 0.03 - 0.42; <i>p</i> = 0.02), after correction for multiple comparisons. Age-stratified analyses showed greater exposure was associated with worse standard audiometric thresholds in older adults (≥44 years; β = 8.1 dB per 10-fold increase, 95% CI 2.5 - 13.6; <i>p</i> = 0.005) but not younger adults. No interaction or main effects of noise were observed for extended high-frequency thresholds, DIN, or tinnitus (<i>p</i> > 0.05). Age was significantly associated with standard and extended high-frequency audiometric thresholds and diotic and antiphasic DIN thresholds. Auditory outcomes were primarily age-driven, with limited noise effects. Greater noise-related threshold loss appeared in older adults, but age effects were larger, suggesting ageing as the dominant determinant. Hearing conservation should address age-related vulnerability alongside exposure control.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261470234"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13385584/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148521592","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The First Cadenza Challenge: Perceptual Evaluation of Machine Learning Systems to Improve Audio Quality of Popular Music for Those with Hearing Loss.","authors":"Scott Bannister, Jennifer Firth, Gerardo Roa-Dabike, Rebecca Vos, William Whitmer, Alinka E Greasley, Simone Graetzer, Bruno Fazenda, Trevor Cox, Jon Barker, Michael A Akeroyd","doi":"10.1177/23312165251408761","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165251408761","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Music is central to many people's lives, and hearing loss (HL) is often a barrier to musical engagement. Hearing aids (HAs) help, but their efficacy in improving speech does not consistently translate to music. This research evaluated systems submitted to the 1^st Cadenza Machine Learning Challenge, where entrants aimed to improve music audio quality for HA users through source separation and remixing. The HA users (<i>N</i> = 53, ranging from \"mild\" to \"moderately severe\" HL) assessed eight challenge systems (including one baseline using the HDemucs source separation algorithm, remixing to original mixes of music samples, and applying National Acoustic Laboratories Revised amplification) and rated 200 music samples processed for their HL. Participants rated samples on <i>basic audio quality, clarity, harshness, distortion, frequency balance</i>, and <i>liking</i>. Results suggest no entrant system surpassed the baseline for audio quality, although differences emerged in system efficacy across HL severities. <i>Clarity</i> and <i>distortion</i> ratings were most predictive of audio quality. Finally, some systems produced signals with higher objective loudness, spectral flux and clipping with increasing HL severity; these received lower audio quality ratings by listeners with moderately severe HL. Findings highlight how music enhancement requires varied solutions and tests across a range of HL severities. This challenge provided a first application of source separation to music listening with HL. However, state-of-the-art source separation algorithms limited the diversity of entrant solutions, resulting in no improvements over the baseline; to promote development of innovative processing strategies, future work should increase complexity of music listening scenarios to be addressed through source separation.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165251408761"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12858752/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146094613","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Leveraging Monaural Exposures to Reveal Early Effects of Noise: Evidence from Police Radio Ear-Piece Use.","authors":"Hannah Guest, Paul Elliott, Martie van Tongeren, Joseph Laycock, Steven Thorley-Lawson, Michael A Stone, Michael T Loughran, Christopher J Plack","doi":"10.1177/23312165251410988","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165251410988","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research into the long-term effects of noise on hearing is often confounded by health and lifestyle differences between individuals. UK police radio ear-pieces are capable of emitting high sound levels and, crucially, are worn in one ear, allowing between-ear comparisons which control for individual-level confounding factors. Low volume-control settings are recommended to reduce risk to police hearing, yet actual usage patterns and auditory effects remain unexamined. This study used a large-scale survey (<i>N</i> = 4,498) to assess ear-piece noise exposure and the associated hearing health. Most participants reported using high volume-control settings and 45.2% reported experiencing signs of temporary threshold shift (TTS) in the exposed ear. Estimated weekly-averaged noise exposures frequently exceeded the UK's 85 dBA Upper Exposure Action Value. Ear-piece use was associated with 73% (95% confidence interval [CI] 46-106%) increased risk of persistent tinnitus, which on mediation analysis appeared to be driven by a subset of users who experienced signs of TTS. Importantly, tinnitus location was associated with the side of exposure, suggesting tinnitus related to device use rather than to other factors. In contrast, Digits-In-Noise thresholds showed no relation with noise exposure; potential explanations include compensatory auditory training effects, but limitations of Digits-In-Noise data must also be considered. Findings highlight a need for further investigation into hearing risks in police personnel, including in-person auditory testing. Risk mitigation strategies might involve improved device design, training on safe use, and expanded hearing health surveillance. Given the potential for cumulative auditory damage, TTS may serve as an early warning sign, warranting attention in broader noise-exposed populations.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165251410988"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12858745/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146094588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hearing Aids Reshape Neural Processing of Emotional Speech Without Improving Emotion Perception.","authors":"Carmen Dang, Gurjit Singh, Frank A Russo","doi":"10.1177/23312165261465515","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261465515","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hearing aids have improved speech intelligibility but not speech emotion perception in older adults with hearing loss. Hearing loss has also been linked to altered brain responses to emotional non-speech sounds, potentially contributing to the speech emotion perception deficits even under aided listening. While fMRI requires hearing aid removal due to metal incompatibility, fNIRS is silent and hearing-aid compatible, creating a novel opportunity to identify neural processes during aided listening. We leveraged fNIRS to examine how hearing aids affect brain function in experienced hearing-aid users during speech emotion perception. Older adults (17 normal hearing, 14 hearing-aid users) judged vocal-emotion changes in speech while fNIRS recorded hemodynamic activity. Hearing-aid users completed the task under aided and unaided listening. Behaviorally, hearing aids did not improve speech emotion perception, replicating prior research. In cortical responses, individuals with hearing loss showed increased planum temporale activity, regardless of hearing-aid use. Unaided listening showed additional frontal recruitment, including increased medial superior frontal gyrus activity and stronger functional connectivity between inferior frontal and superior temporal gyri. Conversely, aided listening increased inferior parietal lobe activity, but reduced connectivity between inferior frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobe. Together, findings indicate that hearing aids partially modify cortical processing of emotional speech. They reduced reliance on frontal compensatory control systems and increased engagement of a higher-order parietal region, consistent with partial restoration of bottom-up auditory information during aided listening. Persistent abnormalities in early auditory processing and incomplete sensorimotor integration may explain why hearing aids fail to normalize speech emotion perception.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261465515"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13329022/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148370356","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}