Considerations on Adaptive Gain and Frequency Response in Hearing Aids

Most sensorineurally hearing-impaired listeners need a better signal-to-noise ratio for speech reception than normal-hearing listeners do. This aspect of hearing loss is probably related to deterioration of the signal-analysing power of the ear. In an impaired ear, noise in one frequency region may have considerable masking effects in other frequency regions. To prevent the hearing-impaired listener from excessive masking, we need an adaptive hearing aid that selectively amplifies only those frequency bands with a signal quality that can contribute to intelligibility. It suffices to present signals in other frequency regions at a just-audible level. A signal-processing scheme is proposed that meets these requirements. The audiological reasoning for the spectral characteristics of such a hearing aid is illustrated with the Articulation Theory. The temporal characteristics required for adaptation to changes in the acoustic environment are discussed in terms of the Modulation Transfer Function. It is shown that amplitude compression with short time constants seriously reduces the quality of speech transmission as expressed in the Speech Transmission Index.