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A New Approach to Hearing Aid Directionality: Three-Microphone and Two-Microphone Hearing Aids for Speech
Mert Kılıç1, Ahmet Alperen Akbulut1, Ahsen Kartal Özcan1
1Department of Audiology, Hamidiye Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Health Sciences, Istanbul, Türkiye.
Purpose:
Our study aimed to compare the new M&RIE (Microphone & Receiver-In-Ear) hearing aid directionality technology with the traditional omnidirectional mode in terms of speech intelligibility (SI) skills in noise.
Method:
Twenty-four participants (12 women and 12 men) with bilateral symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss and no hearing aid experience, aged 28-65 years, were included in our study. Audiologic evaluations were performed, and eligible participants were fitted with hearing aids set to M&RIE and omnidirectional modes. Free-field hearing assessments and Turkish Matrix Tests under different signal/noise conditions were conducted.
Results:
Significant differences were found between M&RIE and omnidirectional mode for both speech reception threshold and SI in noise when the signal was from the front and noise from the back (p < .01), as well as for SI when both signal and noise were presented from the front (p < .01).
Conclusions:
In our study, M&RIE outperformed the omnidirectional mode in speech understanding tests under quiet and different noise conditions. Since placing the microphone in the ear canal is the most natural place for sound collection, M&RIE could potentially benefit any hearing aid user within the gain range of the device.
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