Read about Starkey research studies in these interesting summaries of data and clinical observations.
Perceptual annoyance of environmental sounds is measured for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners under iso-level and iso-loudness conditions. Data from the hearing-impaired listeners shows similar trends to that from normal-hearing listeners, but with greater variability across individuals. A regression model based on the statistics of specific loudness and other perceptual features is fit to the data from the normal-hearing listeners, and is used to predict annoyance for the hearing-impaired listeners. Differences across the subject populations are discussed.
Benefit with directional microphones can be variable across individuals with hearing impairment. It is assumed that directional benefit can be predicted by electroacoustic measures such as the directivity index but the relationship between directional benefit and other clinical factors is less clear. This poster presentation details an analysis of directional benefit for individuals fit in either open or occluded configurations as measured by the Hearing in Noise Test as a function of various clinical factors.
In the prescription of hearing aids, providing insufficient high-frequency gain may have a negative impact on detection of phonemes such as word final /s/ and /z/. Modern techniques for frequency lowering offer an opportunity for improving detection of these phonemes. In recent years three techniques for frequency lowering have been introduced to commercially available hearing aids. This poster details a study that examined behavioral outcomes with three commercially available frequency lowering algorithms in a group of adults with sloping severe high-frequency hearing loss.
Openness of the coupling between the hearing aid and ear modifies the acoustic properties of a hearing aid fitting. An open-canal hearing aid offers benefits related to comfort and reduction of perceived occlusion for the patient. The open-canal hearing aid also limits attainable low-frequency levels in the ear. There is also a greater contribution of direct unamplified sound that enters the ear when compared to more occluding hearing aid fittings. This poster details a study that documented comparative benefits of digital noise reduction and directional microphones with increasing openness of fit.
This research poster details a study in which subjects with varying degrees of hearing loss were fit with custom or receiver-in-canal (RIC) hearing aids and the frequency lowering algorithm (Spectral iQ; Starkey Hearing Technologies). Spectral iQ uses real-time spectral envelope warping to reproduce high-frequency spectral information in a lower frequency region where audibility can be achieved. Over a six-week clinical evaluation, objective performance and subjective outcomes were measured with a variety of laboratory and field tests, including a word-final consonant identification speech test and subjective outcome measures evaluating perceived sound quality and speech understanding.
Predicting hearing aid users' success with amplification is difficult. A metric of a listener's tolerance to background noise, known as the Acceptable Noise Level (ANL) test has shown promise in predicting success with hearing aids; additionally, noise reduction technology has been effective in improving listeners' acceptance noise. If hearing aid success can be predicted with the ANL test and a relationship exists between ANL scores and noise reduction, clinicians may be able to select optimal noise reduction settings that will maximize a patient's success. This study investigated this relationship between digital noise reduction and outcomes with the ANL.
Historically it has been difficult to predict success with hearing aids. Recent research has offered hope that hearing aid success may be predicted with a test of the Acceptable Noise Level (ANL); a measurement of the amount of background noise that a listener is willing to accept. A questionnaire was developed to gain insight into the cues that listeners are using to determine their individual ANLs. Understanding these cues may offer an explanation as to why some individuals are successful with hearing aids while others are not.
Forty-four research participants completed a study that evaluated speech understanding in noise while wearing S Series™ hearing aids. One of the experimental questions asked if directional benefit in a noisy background — relative to performance with omni-directional microphones — could be predicted from the pure-tone audiogram. While trends within the group data suggest that higher pure-tone thresholds may result in the greatest benefit from directional microphone technology, individual variability in performance suggests that directional benefit should not be attributed to audiometric data alone.
This article documents the real-world benefits of incorporating real-ear measurements into clinical practice. Data collected from clinical sites using real-ear measurements were compared to data from sites that did not complete real-ear measurements. Fittings optimized using real-ear verification resulted in increased high‑frequency output relative to fittings that did not utilize real-ear verification. Data from the Device‑Oriented Subjective Outcome (DOSO) Scale indicate that the fittings optimized with real-ear measurements delivered significantly greater benefit than fittings that were not optimized through real-ear measurements.