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Self-motion with Hearing Impairment and (Directional) Hearing Aids
Maartje M E Hendrikse1, Theda Eichler1, Volker Hohmann1
1Auditory Signal Processing and Cluster of Excellence "Hearing4all", Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
Trends in Hearing
|March 28, 2022
Summary
Hearing-impaired listeners move their heads more than normal-hearing individuals, slightly improving signal-to-noise ratios. Hearing aids did not alter this self-motion behavior in hearing-impaired (HI) individuals.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Acoustics
Background:
- Typical head movement in daily listening is individual and may not align with sound sources.
- Hearing aid directional algorithms' performance can be affected by listener head movements.
- Hearing-impaired (HI) listeners' movement behaviors may differ from normal-hearing (NH) individuals, potentially influencing hearing aid effectiveness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the influence of hearing impairment on self-motion behavior.
- To examine the interaction between hearing aids and self-motion in HI listeners.
- To compare the self-motion of HI listeners with and without hearing aids to NH listeners.
Main Methods:
- Measured self-motion of three HI participant groups (aided with adaptive differential microphone (ADM), aided without ADM, unaided) in virtual audiovisual environments (VEs).
- Compared HI self-motion data to previously recorded data from younger and older NH participants.
- Estimated signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and ADM SNR improvement using acoustic simulations based on participant head movements.
Main Results:
- HI participants predominantly used head movements, unlike NH participants who utilized more eye movements.
- This head-centric movement resulted in a modest 0.3 dB increase in estimated SNR for HI listeners.
- Self-motion patterns of HI participants aided with ADM were comparable to other HI groups, showing no adaptation to the device.
Conclusions:
- Hearing impairment influences self-motion, leading to increased head movement and a slight SNR benefit.
- The adaptive differential microphone (ADM) did not significantly alter the self-motion behavior of hearing-impaired users.
- Understanding self-motion in HI individuals is crucial for optimizing hearing aid directional algorithm performance.
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