Clinical Topics in Hearing Aid Research

Clinical Topics in Hearing Aid Research

---

That article could have provided new clinical insights or—for a student—improved the quality of a project or report. Students and university faculty often have the luxury of accessing journals through bundled subscriptions brokered by their library system. Take MIT as an example: Consider a hypothetical audiologist in clinical practice: Dr Rhodes is a scholarly type, keen on best practice and maintaining current knowledge on audiologic research. Assume now that Dr Rhodes has successfully accessed the journals of interest and narrowed her field of study to hearing aids and related publications.

Maintaining knowledge in this area requires lightly reading each journal, scanning abstracts, and more thoroughly reading articles that appear to hold value to her larger goal of evidence-based practice in hearing aids—certainly not a trivial proposition, especially for a full-time clinical service provider. Several years ago, Dr Katherine Stevens and I sat down over lunch to discuss a long-term writing project.

Katherine and I come from much different professional environments. She owns a private practice just north of Chicago, and I work in a clinical research environment.

On Galster & Stevens’ New Book: Clinical Topics in Hearing Aid Research

In this project we planned to monitor the scientific literature in audiology, looking specifically for publications that offer practical clinical insights to audiologists working with hearing aids. Each month we would ask a clinical question or make a statement about clinical outcomes and address this question or statement through review of a focal research article.

This free service is available to anyone who has published and whose publication is in Scopus. Researcher Academy Author Services Try out personalized alert features. Recent Hearing Research Articles. Electrophysiological and behavioral measures of some speech contrasts in varied attention and noise 1 March Investigating peripheral sources of speech-in-noise variability in listeners with normal audiograms January Microvascular networks in the area of the auditory peripheral nervous system - Open Access January Noise-induced trauma produces a temporal pattern of change in blood levels of the outer hair cell biomarker prestin January Effect of blindness on mismatch responses to Mandarin lexical tones, consonants, and vowels January Intracochlear near infrared stimulation: The frequency-following response FFR to speech stimuli: Pulse-rate discrimination deficit in cochlear implant users: The effect of presentation level on spectrotemporal modulation detection January Improved interaural timing of acoustic nerve stimulation affects sound localization in single-sided deaf cochlear implant users January No otoacoustic evidence for a peripheral basis of absolute pitch - Open Access December Prolonged low-level noise exposure reduces rat distortion product otoacoustic emissions above a critical level December Brain-like emergent auditory learning: A developmental method December Quantitative distribution of choline acetyltransferase activity in rat trapezoid body December Development and validation of a method to record electrophysiological responses in direct acoustic cochlear implant subjects December Neural envelope encoding predicts speech perception performance for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired adults December Recovery of auditory-nerve-fiber spike amplitude under natural excitation conditions December Improved directional hearing of children with congenital unilateral conductive hearing loss implanted with an active bone-conduction implant or an active middle ear implant December These authors also attempted to look at accuracy.

Account Options

One of the weaknesses of this study is they didn't measure the signal level at the eardrum. They compared results to the 30mm depth, and assumed that was a fairly accurate measure of the signal level at the eardrum. They did point out that the size and direction of error was predictable in this study. That is, the more shallow the insertion depth, the more you would underestimate the level at the 30mm depth in the high frequencies. More work in this area is needed.

However, I think this study points out that simply by going to a slightly deeper insertion depth when taking probe mic measures may allow us to take more reliable measures in the high frequencies.

This study looked at preference using paired comparisons, and strength of preference ratings. Listeners were asked to compare frequency compression on and off, and say which one they preferred, and then give a strength of preference rating. Across all of the listeners, both those with and without hearing loss, those who had musical training and those who did not, less frequency compression was preferred for music. Listeners with musical training had stronger preferences for no frequency compression.

Listeners with normal hearing had stronger preferences for no frequency compression than listeners with hearing impairment. However, the authors noted that for people with hearing loss, particularly those without musical training, the strength of preference for frequency compression on versus off, was not that strong as compared to their preferences for frequency compression on versus maximized.

The authors suggested that mild amounts of frequency compression may not be detrimental to perceived sound quality for music, particularly in listeners with impaired hearing.

You may also be interested in

Considering the implications of use of sentence materials in auditory training, can we say that more the individual uses his hearing aids in conversational speech, listening, and responding, the greater improvement he will realize? In other words, the more you use it, the better your hearing capabilities will improve. Is perhaps real-world practice the best practice for hearing aid users? I think there are a lot of studies out there looking at how well different types of targeted training can be generalized.

We've seen this in kind of the popular brain training groups that have been out there, like trying to improve your cognition by doing things on a computer that may be translatable. One interesting thread in most of that research is that there is no practice better than doing the actual activity. I think that the advantage of auditory training is it sort of forces the practice. I wouldn't be surprised if the research finds that best type of training is the training that is most realistic to what we do every day.

Consumer satisfaction with hearing aids is slowly increasing. Hearing Journal, 63 1 , The effects of frequency lowering on speech perception in noise with adult hearing-aid users. International Journal of Audiology , 55 5 , — International Journal of Audiology, 54 9 , The effects of FM and hearing Aid microphone settings, FM gain and ambient noise levels at the tympanic membrane.

JAAA, 27 , — A randomized control trial: Ear and Hearing, 37 4 , — Fitting noise management signal processing applying the American Academy of Audiology Pediatric Amplification Guideline: JAAA, 27 3 , The need for and development of an adaptive listening and communication enhancement LACE program. JAAA, 17 , — Extended bandwidth real-ear measurement accuracy and repeatability to 10 kHz, International Journal of Audiology, 55 10 , Wind noise within and across behind-the-ear and miniature behind-the-ear hearing aids.

Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 4 , Vanderbilt Audiology Journal Club - research examining benefit of hearing aid features. AudiologyOnline , Article Ricketts has published more than articles and book chapters and provided over presentations both nationally and internationally. He continues to pursue a very active federally- and industry-funded research program studying the interaction between hearing aids and other hearing assistive technologies, listening environment, and individual differences as they impact the listening and communication experience.

He is a past editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal Trends in Amplification, a past chair of the Vanderbilt Institutional Review Board, a past associate editor for the Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research. He is currently serving on the board of directors of the American Academy of Audiology. In addition to his research and service, Todd teaches and mentors students at Vanderbilt.

Learning Outcomes After this course, participants will be able to: List 4 recent journal articles that address the benefit of hearing aid features or fitting.

Clinical Research | Ear Science Institute of Australia

Explain the findings of 4 recent journal articles that address the benefit of hearing aid features or fitting. Describe how the results of 4 recent journal articles may impact the clinical process of hearing aid fitting and support evidence based practice. Introduction and Overview Gus Mueller: Verification Protocols Scollie et al. What They Did In this study, the participants were 15 children and young adults between the ages of years.

They evaluated four BTE hearing aid models: Fast noise reduction speed; medium effect i. Medium speed; medium to strong effect Hearing Aid 3: Medium speed; weak effect Hearing Aid 4: The five groups included: Why is This Important? What They Did The study had 10 participants. What They Found For speech recognition in noise, SNR was not improved for any of the frequency lowering and technologies.

Article 3 - A Randomized Control Trial: What They Did One of the things I liked about this study is that there was a large group of subjects. They were randomized into one of four different treatments after the fitting: LACE Training using a session DVD format LACE Training using a session computer-based format Placebo auditory training consisting of actively listening to digitized books on computer Control group, which received educational counseling, rather than any sort of listening training Groups were compared and compliance was tracked across all the different methods.

What They Did The investigators measured wind-noise levels across one BTE and two mini BTE devices, and between the front and rear omni-directional microphones within devices. What They Found The authors calculated SII in quiet, and across the different conditions for two different hearing losses: What They Did The researchers calculated the estimated SNR as a function of noise level and microphone conditions based on a theoretical model.

Calculated SNR as a function of noise level. Some Interesting Research Findings As I mentioned at the beginning, there are a couple other studies that I want to mention briefly, as they have important clinical points. Probe Mic Measures — Insertion Depth This first study analyzed what happens when we take probe mic measurements using different insertion depths Vaisberg et al, Questions and Answers Considering the implications of use of sentence materials in auditory training, can we say that more the individual uses his hearing aids in conversational speech, listening, and responding, the greater improvement he will realize?

Clinical Topics in Hearing Aid Research

To earn CEUs for this article, become a member. Related Courses 1 https: Hearing Aid Features and Benefits - Research Evidence A review of recent key journal articles on the evidence for the benefit or lack thereof of various hearing aid features, to help inform clinical decision-making and support evidence-based practice for audiologists.

Vanderbilt Audiology's Journal Club: A review of recent key journal articles on the evidence for the benefit or lack thereof of various hearing aid features, to help inform clinical decision-making and support evidence-based practice for audiologists. Todd Ricketts This course provides a review of recent journal articles on hearing aids, and the implications for clinical practice by Dr. Todd Ricketts of Vanderbilt University.

Clinical Research

Vanderbilt Audiology's Journal Club with Dr. This course provides a review of recent journal articles on hearing aids, and the implications for clinical practice by Dr. Todd Ricketts from Vanderbilt University discussing recent key journal articles regarding evidence for the benefits of select hearing aid features, and their implications for audiology clinical practice.

This webinar will feature Dr. Todd Ricketts and Erin Picou from Vanderbilt University will review recent key hearing aid journal articles and discuss their implications for hearing healthcare providers.

• Out of Darkness
• LEIS UNIVERSAIS - O efeito dominó (Portuguese Edition)
• Introduction to Number Theory (Textbooks in Mathematics)
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Beirut
• Bedtime Monster / ¡A dormir, pequeño monstruo!