Listener Performance with a Novel Hearing Aid Frequency Lowering Technique.

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Hearing Science
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Sloping hearing loss limits audibility of high-frequency sounds for hearing aid users.
• Frequency-lowering signal processing algorithms aim to improve high-frequency sound audibility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare speech perception, listening effort, and sound quality with conventional hearing aid processing and a new frequency-lowering strategy called frequency composition (FC).
• To evaluate FC's effectiveness in adults and children with sensorineural hearing loss.

Main Methods:

• A double-blind, counterbalanced study comparing conventional processing and FC in 24 hearing aid users (12 adults, 12 children).
• Participants underwent laboratory testing and six-week at-home trials for each processing condition.
• Outcomes included speech perception tasks, listening effort measures, and subjective sound quality surveys, analyzed using linear mixed effects models.

Main Results:

• No significant differences in speech perception or listening effort between FC and conventional processing were found.
• Listener age and longitudinal changes did not significantly impact performance.
• Higher aided audibility consistently correlated with better speech perception.
• Listeners preferred FC over conventional processing in one of six subjective sound quality metrics.

Conclusions:

• When high-frequency sounds are audible, FC and conventional processing yield similar speech recognition and listening effort.
• Despite no significant speech perception benefit, some individuals preferred FC, highlighting the importance of qualitative assessments for candidacy.
• Qualitative measures should guide the selection of frequency-lowering signal processing strategies.