Effects of extended high frequency bandwidth in osseointegrated bone conduction device users

Area of Science:

• Audiology
• Speech-Language Pathology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• High-frequency hearing (above 5000 Hz) is crucial for phoneme detection and discrimination.
• Unilateral deafness leads to reduced high-frequency speech cue access and impaired speech perception in noise.
• Osseointegrated bone conduction hearing devices (BCD) can potentially restore hearing, but bandwidth limitations exist.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of extended high-frequency bandwidth on speech perception in unilaterally deafened BCD recipients.
• To compare speech perception outcomes between narrow and extended high-frequency bandwidth BCD listening conditions.

Main Methods:

• Participants with unilateral deafness using BCDs were tested in narrow and extended high-frequency bandwidth conditions.
• Speech perception in quiet (word and phoneme recognition) and in noise was assessed.
• The Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) was used for speech-in-noise evaluation.

Main Results:

• Extended high-frequency bandwidth significantly improved word and phoneme recognition in quiet for soft and conversational speech levels.
• Significant improvements were observed in speech perception in noise.
• The most substantial gains were noted for the recognition of voiceless phonemes.

Conclusions:

• Bone conduction devices with extended high-frequency bandwidth offer superior hearing outcomes compared to narrow bandwidth devices.
• Restoring access to high-frequency speech cues via extended bandwidth BCDs is beneficial for unilaterally deafened listeners.
• Further research into optimizing BCDs for high-frequency transmission is warranted.