Trends in HearingPub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2026-04-30DOI: 10.1177/23312165261447076
Mie L Jørgensen, Rebecca K Hendel, Asmus Vogel, Abigail Anne Kressner
{"title":"Association Between Age-Related Sensory and Metabolic Hearing Loss and Cognitive Performance.","authors":"Mie L Jørgensen, Rebecca K Hendel, Asmus Vogel, Abigail Anne Kressner","doi":"10.1177/23312165261447076","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261447076","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The underlying mechanisms linking age-related hearing loss (HL), and cognitive dysfunction are not well-understood. Traditionally, age-related HL was primarily related to damage of hair cells (i.e., the sensory component of HL) however, growing evidence suggests that the endocochlear potential (i.e., the metabolic component of HL) may also play a role. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the sensory and metabolic components of HL and cognitive dysfunction in 100 older adults. Forty participants were patients with mild cognitive impairment recruited during visits to the Memory Clinic at the Danish Dementia Research Centre, while 60 participants were recruited from the general public. All participants were assessed with pure-tone audiometry and a comprehensive cognitive test battery including but not limited to tests examining, episodic memory, processing speed, and executive functions. The sensory and metabolic components of the HL were estimated based on the age-related HL components model. Metabolic HL was strongly correlated with performance on tests of processing speed, moderately correlated with performances on tests of executive function, but not significantly correlated with episodic memory performance. On the other hand, sensory HL was not significantly correlated with any of the cognitive tests. When correcting for age, the correlation between metabolic HL and processing speed remained significant. Thus, participants with lower processing speed were significantly more likely to have a larger metabolic HL. These data could lend support to the idea that shared vascular pathophysiological mechanisms are a key link between age-related HL and cognitive decline.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261447076"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13153505/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147786361","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":"Event-Related Potentials as Markers of Age-Related Changes of Spatial Hearing in Normal-Hearing Adults.","authors":"Mariam Alzaher, Pauline Nieto, Kuzma Strelnikov, Mathieu Marx, Pascal Barone","doi":"10.1177/23312165251410295","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165251410295","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Previous studies have shown that older adults can witness a decline in the integration of their spatial auditory cues even when they don't present pathological audiometric thresholds. Nonetheless, when spatial hearing in aging is discussed, most of the focus concerns elderly individuals with hearing impairments or presbycusis, rather than those with clinically normal hearing. In fact, auditory aging (even without presbycusis) may still result in a decline in spatial sensitivity, potentially contributing to the deterioration of key binaural functions crucial for speech understanding, such as binaural summation, squelch effect, and head shadow effect. The current study aims to determine whether Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) can reflect auditory spatial aging in populations without abnormal audiometric thresholds. Using a spatial oddball paradigm, we aim to explore the neural components associated with spatial sensitivity and examine whether these components correlate with changes in binaural integration with age. Our findings suggested a decrease in spatial auditory performance, speech in noise comprehension, and cognitive status across age even when audiometric thresholds were normal. Electroencephalograhy investigation revealed a strong correlation between N100 amplitudes and age, in addition to correlation between unmasking function and N100 amplitudes. These findings underscore the validity of ERP components as markers of spatial hearing performance and aging. This could orient the decision-making concerning the necessity for hearing rehabilitation in some cases to compensate for deficits and prevent auditory aging consequences on peripheral and central auditory processing.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165251410295"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12932879/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147285766","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}
Trends in HearingPub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2026-07-15DOI: 10.1177/23312165261447074
Carmen Marie Castañeda González, Manuela Huber, Florian Völk, Louis Teufel, Aulia Djamal, Linya Ruan, Skander Znaidi, Werner Hemmert, Sonja Karg
{"title":"Impact of Presentation Order on Pitch Ranking Sensitivity in Cochlear Implant Users and Normal-Hearing Listeners and Its Mitigation.","authors":"Carmen Marie Castañeda González, Manuela Huber, Florian Völk, Louis Teufel, Aulia Djamal, Linya Ruan, Skander Znaidi, Werner Hemmert, Sonja Karg","doi":"10.1177/23312165261447074","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261447074","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Accurate pitch perception in cochlear implants (CIs) remains challenging, making psychophysical measures susceptible to procedural biases. In unilateral pitch ranking, subjects judge which of two successive stimuli is higher in pitch, typically yielding electrode order roughly consistent with tonotopy. In our study with 10 MED-EL CI users, each of the 12 electrodes was compared with its three next neighbors. Pitch ranking was influenced by the presentation order of the electrode pairs. To investigate this effect, we tested 9 normal-hearing (NH) listeners using bandpass-filtered noise (6 dB/oct slopes) to approximate current spread during CI stimulation. Comparable performances across CI and NH in all three spacing conditions indicated similar pitch perception difficulty. On average, both groups discriminated 8 of 12 channels based solely on pitch (discriminability via d'), suggesting that 6 dB/oct slopes approximate mean monopolar current spread at the group level. Pitch rankings of adjacent channels exhibited biases. A repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between presentation order and stimulation site in both groups (CI: p = .003; NH: p < .001): pairs below the stimulus range midpoint were more often reported as descending, whereas pairs above the middle were more often reported as ascending. This asymmetric bias may reflect a context-dependent decision process in which subjects compare the second stimulus to a weighted average of the first and previously presented stimuli. Presentation-order effects were mitigated by testing stimulus pairs in isolation, at the expense of reduced randomization. Our findings highlight the importance of controlling biases to ensure reliable psychophysical measures.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261447074"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13373434/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148450084","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}
Trends in HearingPub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2026-08-14DOI: 10.1177/23312165261469264
Vijayalakshmi Easwar, Vicky W Zhang, Jason Gavrilis, Teresa Y C Ching, Brent Edwards
{"title":"Listening-Related Fatigue in Adolescents With Prelingual Deafness and Device Experience.","authors":"Vijayalakshmi Easwar, Vicky W Zhang, Jason Gavrilis, Teresa Y C Ching, Brent Edwards","doi":"10.1177/23312165261469264","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261469264","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study evaluated listening-related fatigue among adolescents with prelingual hearing loss (HL) and long-term device use; and examined demographic, audiological, and functional factors associated with increased fatigue. A total of 271 16-19-yr-old adolescents fitted with their first hearing device by 3 years of age, and their parents completed the self- and parent-report versions of the Vanderbilt Fatigue Scale, respectively. Of these, 53.9% (n=136) used hearing aids (HA), 46.0% (n=116) used at least one cochlear implant (CI), <2% (n=4) used bone conduction (BC) devices, and 7% (n=15) were unaided. Group mean fatigue scores of adolescents were within one standard deviation of the normative mean. Yet, scores of 24.5-50.5% of HA and CI users showed clinically significant fatigue. BC users showed no indications of high fatigue. Among HA and CI users, limited associations were evident between fatigue and audiological factors such as device type, hearing level, or age at first device fit. Greater fatigue reported by adolescents and parents was associated with female gender, greater communication difficulties, and more symptoms of anxiety and depression. The gender effect was no longer significant after accounting for communication and mental well-being. In CI users, greater parent-reported fatigue was associated with more frequent use of school accommodations. In HA users, better expressive language was associated with lower self-reported fatigue. Overall, listening-related fatigue appears to be a concern in adolescents with early-onset HL despite early intervention and long-term device use. Communication and well-being factors appear more informative than audiological variables for addressing fatigue in this group.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261469264"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13477544/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148762766","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}
Trends in HearingPub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2026-08-20DOI: 10.1177/23312165261471286
Chen Xu, Lena Schell-Majoor, Birger Kollmeier
{"title":"Test-Retest Reliability and Preliminary Validation of Smartphone-Based Threshold and Categorical loudness Measures in Home Settings.","authors":"Chen Xu, Lena Schell-Majoor, Birger Kollmeier","doi":"10.1177/23312165261471286","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23312165261471286","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Reliable hearing assessment at home can improve accessibility and reduce dependence on in-clinic testing. To be viable, home-based procedures must provide accurate results within short measurement times and remain robust to factors such as ambient noise and variable user attention. In this proof-of-concept study with a limited sample size, we evaluated two such procedures-a Graded Response Bracketing method (GRaBr) for pure-tone threshold estimation and a reinforced adaptive categorical loudness scaling method (rACALOS) for loudness-growth assessment - using remote, smartphone-based testing, and compared their outcomes with those obtained inside the laboratory using established reference procedures. Fifteen young adults with normal hearing completed the tasks at home and in the laboratory. Test-retest reliability was assessed by repeating the home measurements within one week of the initial session. Ambient noise levels in home environments were also recorded. The intraclass correlation coefficients for GRaBr measured at home exceeded 0.75, indicating good test-retest reliability. Similarly, home-based rACALOS showed generally high reliability, with across-run biases below 5 dB at all frequencies; however, mean interquartile ranges reached up to 18.4 dB at some loudness categories. Remote GRaBr measurements showed small, non-significant deviations from laboratory audiometry (0.4 ± 7.1 dB); however, frequency-specific biases of approximately ±5 dB were observed at 250 Hz and 4 kHz, with root-mean-square errors ranging from 4.6 to 8.0 dB across frequencies. Compared with the in-lab ACALOS, remote rACALOS showed an overall bias of 3.38 ± 11.8 dB across loudness categories, with no significant overall effect of test environment. These findings suggest that smartphone-based pure-tone audiometry and loudness-scaling assessments provide accurate and reliable results when using these procedures at home, at least in normal-hearing young adults, who are experienced loudness raters, under suitable acoustic conditions with low ambient noise.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261471286"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13494286/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148799868","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}
Trends in HearingPub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2026-08-10DOI: 10.1177/23312165261477134
Chris Davis, April Ching, Afrah Haroon, Jeesun Kim
{"title":"Real-Time Conversation Comprehension in Younger and Older Adults: The Effects of Noise, Visual Speech, Speaker Switch, and Context.","authors":"Chris Davis, April Ching, Afrah Haroon, Jeesun Kim","doi":"10.1177/23312165261477134","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261477134","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study investigated older and younger adults' conversational speech understanding using an established topic monitoring task to assess real-time semantic processing. Twenty-three younger adults (mean age = 26.5 years) and 19 older adults (mean age = 71.3 years) monitored for topic targets in 24 dialogues (2-3 minutes each). The impact on monitoring response time and accuracy of two message-level factors (when speakers switch; contextual predictability) was assessed while manipulating two signal-level factors (presentation modality; noise level). Results showed that presentation modality affected response times, with faster correct responses for audio-visual versus audio-only presentation, an effect that interacted with age (older adults had a larger visual speech benefit). Noise (0 dB SNR) increased response times and decreased accuracy compared to presentation in quiet. A speaker switch delayed response time to the first target after the switch compared to non-switch targets. When the target occurred relatively soon after a speaker switch, older adults showed a significant switch cost, whereas younger adults did not. Targets that were more predictable from context (low surprisal) had faster response times. In the most challenging listening condition (Audio-only presentation in noise), the effect of contextual predictability for older adults was marginally larger than for younger adults, suggesting greater use of context. These findings highlight the utility of the topic monitoring task for probing conversational speech comprehension across the lifespan.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261477134"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13458311/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148708082","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}
Trends in HearingPub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2026-04-21DOI: 10.1177/23312165261442996
Hendrik Husstedt, Robert Wiedenbeck, Luca Wiederschein, Florian Denk
{"title":"Benefit of Amplification at Low Input Levels in Normal-Hearing Listeners.","authors":"Hendrik Husstedt, Robert Wiedenbeck, Luca Wiederschein, Florian Denk","doi":"10.1177/23312165261442996","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165261442996","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Hearing devices such as hearables, personal sound amplification products, hearing aids, and active hearing protectors providing amplification in some settings are increasingly used by individuals with normal hearing. However, the benefits of providing amplification in this population remain unclear. This study investigated the effects of amplification on hearing thresholds, speech intelligibility in quiet, and experienced listening effort in normal-hearing listeners. Forty-four young adults with clinically normal hearing participated in two experiments comparing three conditions: open ear, aided with 0 dB insertion gain to approximate acoustic transparency, and aided with 15 dB flat insertion gain. Amplification was provided using a research hearing aid fitted with closed foam earplugs. Speech intelligibility was assessed with the Oldenburg Sentence Test, and experienced listening effort was measured using Adaptive CAtegorical Listening Effort Scaling (ACALES). Listening through the nominally transparent device introduced consistent disadvantages, including elevated hearing thresholds, reduced speech intelligibility, and increased listening effort. Providing 15 dB of amplification partially compensated hearing threshold elevation, fully restored speech intelligibility and reduced experienced listening effort beyond the unaided condition. Benefits of amplification at low input levels were primarily limited by the equivalent input noise of the hearing-aid microphones. These findings suggest that amplification can provide meaningful benefits for normal-hearing listeners at low speech levels, particularly when listening effort is considered alongside speech intelligibility. Future studies should examine these effects under more ecologically valid listening conditions, and potential benefits of increased amplification in hearing-impaired listeners.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261442996"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13111850/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147730309","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}
Trends in HearingPub Date : 2026-01-01Epub Date: 2026-10-14DOI: 10.1177/23312165261487553
Bobby E Gibbs, Miranda Cleary, Joshua G W Bernstein, Matthew J Goupell
{"title":"Predicting Interaural Time Difference Sensitivity for Bilateral Cochlear-Implant Listeners From Loudness Levels and Factors Reflective of the Electrode-to-Neural Interface.","authors":"Bobby E Gibbs, Miranda Cleary, Joshua G W Bernstein, Matthew J Goupell","doi":"10.1177/23312165261487553","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23312165261487553","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study evaluated how interaural-time-difference (ITD) thresholds for bilateral cochlear-implant listeners were related to monaural and binaural factors associated with behavioral loudness perception and objective measures associated with the interface between electrode contacts and target neurons (the electrode-to-neural interface, ENI). For 11 bilateral cochlear-implant listeners, ITD thresholds for number-matched interaural electrode pairs were measured at five places along the array. On these same electrodes, the most comfortable current level used for stimulation (C-level), electrically evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs), and electrode positions relative to the modiolus based on computed-tomography scans were recorded. Monaural predictors included stimulation level (quantified by C-levels), modiolar distance (related to the width of neural activation), and efficacy of auditory nerve fiber responses to electrical stimulation [ECAP amplitude growth function (AGF) slopes]. Binaural predictors included the degree of interaural asymmetry in both C-levels and modiolar distances. It was hypothesized that better ITD sensitivity would be related to higher C-levels and larger modiolar distances (because of increased loudness and broader neural activation), steeper ECAP AGF slopes (because of more numerous and healthy neurons), and smaller interaural asymmetry (because of a larger proportion of binaurally excited neurons). The hypotheses were tested via backwards elimination in mixed-effects models with bias and stability analyses performed using bootstrapping. Partially confirming the hypotheses, higher C-levels and greater modiolar distance for electrodes in the ear with better ENI (as defined primarily by the ECAP AGF slope) were significantly associated with better ITD thresholds. These results highlight the role of monaural processing in binaural performance.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"30 ","pages":"23312165261487553"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2026-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149185382","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}
Trends in HearingPub Date : 2025-01-01Epub Date: 2025-03-18DOI: 10.1177/23312165251317923
Charlotte Vercammen, Olaf Strelcyk
{"title":"Development and Validation of a Self-Administered Online Hearing Test.","authors":"Charlotte Vercammen, Olaf Strelcyk","doi":"10.1177/23312165251317923","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165251317923","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We describe the development and validation of a self-administered online hearing test, which screens for hearing loss and provides an estimated audiogram. The hearing test computes test results from age, self-reported hearing abilities, and self-assessed pure-tone thresholds. It relies on regression, Bayesian and binary classification, leveraging probabilistic effects of age as well as interfrequency and interaural relationships in audiograms. The test was devised based on development data, collected prospectively in an online experiment from a purposive convenience sample of 251 adult American, Australian, Canadian, and Swiss participants, 58% of whom had hearing loss. Later, we externally validated the hearing test. Validation data were collected prospectively from a representative sample of 156 adult Belgian participants, 15% of whom had hearing loss. Participants completed the hearing test and audiometric assessments at home. The results for the primary screening outcome showed that the hearing test screened for mild hearing losses with a sensitivity of 0.83 [95%-confidence interval (CI): 0.65, 0.96], specificity of 0.94 [CI: 0.89, 0.98], positive predictive value of 0.70 [CI: 0.57, 0.87], and negative predictive value of 0.97 [CI: 0.94, 0.99]. Results for the secondary audiogram estimation outcome showed mean differences between estimated and gold standard hearing thresholds ranging from 2.1 to 12.4 dB, with an average standard deviation of the differences of 14.8 dB. In conclusion, the hearing test performed comparably to state-of-the-art hearing screeners. This test, therefore, is a validated alternative to existing screening tools, and, additionally, it provides an estimated audiogram.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"29 ","pages":"23312165251317923"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11920986/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143659046","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}
Trends in HearingPub Date : 2025-01-01Epub Date: 2025-04-03DOI: 10.1177/23312165251333225
Markus Kemper, Florian Denk, Hendrik Husstedt, Jonas Obleser
{"title":"Acoustically Transparent Hearing Aids Increase Physiological Markers of Listening Effort.","authors":"Markus Kemper, Florian Denk, Hendrik Husstedt, Jonas Obleser","doi":"10.1177/23312165251333225","DOIUrl":"10.1177/23312165251333225","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>While hearing aids are beneficial in compensating for hearing loss and suppressing ambient noise, they may also introduce an unwanted processing burden to the listener's sensory and cognitive system. To investigate such adverse side effects, hearing aids may be set to a 'transparent mode', aiming to replicate natural hearing through the open ear as best as possible. Such transparent hearing aids have previously been demonstrated to exhibit a small but significant disadvantage in speech intelligibility, with less conclusive effects on self-rated listening effort. Here we aimed to reproduce these findings and expand them with neurophysiological measures of invested listening effort, including parietal alpha power and pupil size. Invested listening effort was measured across five task difficulties, ranging from nearly impossible to easy, with normal-hearing participants in both aided and unaided conditions. Results well reproduced a hearing aid disadvantage for speech intelligibility and subjective listening effort ratings. As to be expected, pupil size and parietal alpha power followed an inverted u-shape, peaking at moderate task difficulties (around SRT50). However, the transparent hearing aid increased pupil size and parietal alpha power at medium task demand (between SRT20 and SRT80). These neurophysiological effects were larger than those observed in speech intelligibility and subjective listening effort, respectively. The results gain plausibility by yielding a substantial association of individual pupil size and individual parietal alpha power. In sum, our findings suggest that key neurophysiological measures of invested listening effort are sensitive to the individual additional burden on speech intelligibility that hearing aid processing can introduce.</p>","PeriodicalId":48678,"journal":{"name":"Trends in Hearing","volume":"29 ","pages":"23312165251333225"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11970058/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143781706","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}