Clinical Applications for Time-Compressed Speech Tests
Condition: Hearing Loss
MeSH terms: Hearing Loss; Deafness
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of age-related cognitive changes on
      hearing aid benefit based on hearing aid compression time constants.

      The hypothesis is that people with poor working memory skills will benefit from slow time
      constants in hearing aid compression while those with good working memory skills will be able
      to benefit from more sophisticated compression algorithms with rapid time constants.
    

Detailed description: 
      Recent research has shown the relevance of cognitive function in hearing aid evaluation and
      the sensitivity of the aging auditory system to temporal distortions. The proposed
      investigation will examine the interaction of working memory and hearing aid compression
      method on speech recognition in background competition for older listeners. This interaction
      will be investigated for the following three forms of background competition:

        1. Competition from continuous speech-shaped noise.

        2. Competition from speech-modulated noise.

        3. Competition from a single interfering talker.

      The goals of the study will be accomplished in two phases. In the first phase, 160 adults
      aged 50 through 75 years will be evaluated on a battery of tests to determine their cognitive
      capacity, time-compressed speech scores and their candidacy for inclusion in the second phase
      of the study. At the conclusion of this phase of testing, the participants will be divided
      into three groups:

        1. subjects with TCS test scores in the highest quartile (the HIGH group)

        2. subjects with TCS test scores in the lowest quartile (the LOW group)

        3. the remaining listeners

      The second phase of the experiment will include listeners from the HIGH and LOW groups only.
      These subjects will be evaluated with respect to their speech recognition ability for three
      types of interference (steady-state noise, speech-modulated noise, single interfering
      talker). The HINT test (Nilsson, Soli, & Sumida, 1995; Nilsson et al., 1994) will be used to
      obtain the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at 50% recognition for the three masking conditions
      for each of three types of amplification:

        1. one- channel linear amplification (LINEAR) with frequency shaping

        2. two-channel wide dynamic range compression with fast time constants (FAST)

        3. two-channel wide dynamic range compression with slow time constants (SLOW) Listener
           groups will be compared across hearing aid conditions and across background interference
           conditions.
    

Intervention name(s): Audiological Evaluation
Intervention type(s): Procedure
Intervention description(s): Tests of hearing, cognition, and speech perception
Allocation: Non-Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Hearing Loss; Hearing Aids; Rehabilitation of hearing impaired