International Journal of Audiology最新文献

Objective: Identify factors predicting work capacity among patients with tinnitus and hyperacusis.

Design and study sample: This study employed a cross-sectional design, collecting data from four Norwegian audiology clinics (N = 80) and two Norwegian rehabilitation centres (N = 47). The patients in this study were invited to complete a web-based questionnaire.

Results: This study found significant positive correlations between levels of tinnitus, hyperacusis, and mental distress (rs in the range .51 - .74). Logistic regression models showed that reduced work capacity was predicted by both tinnitus (OR = 1.07) and hyperacusis (OR = 1.13), and that hyperacusis predicted work absence (OR = 1.08).

Conclusion: The findings demonstrate a moderate association between tinnitus and hyperacusis (r = .51), with both conditions affecting the work capacity of more than 50% of participants in the study. Moreover, the results indicate that the severity of tinnitus and hyperacusis is directly related to impaired work capacity and higher rates of work absence.

Objective: To investigate the effects of earplug type and noise exposure level on textile workers' personal attenuation rating (PAR).

Design: Initial and follow-up visits were conducted at a 17-month interval. At each visit, a baseline HPD fit test was performed using either a 3M foam or pre-molded earplug, as chosen by the workers. Workers who failed to meet targeted levels were trained and retested. Once they failed again, the other earplug was selected, and training was provided until they achieved the PAR target.

Study sample: 192 textile workers into three noise exposure level groups (low, medium, high).

Results: The median baseline PAR was 10 dB at the initial visits and 13 dB at the follow-up visits, and obtained by foam earplug users was 20 dB, which was higher than that obtained by pre-molded earplug users [12 dB (95% CI, 10-15 dB)]. The highest median baseline PAR was obtained by the high noise level group, followed by the median and low noise level groups. Training significantly increased the PAR.

Conclusions: Multiple types of earplugs need to be offered to workers to deal with individual differences in attenuation, preferences, and exposure levels. Training and stricter compliance policies can improve HPD use and fitting, contributing to better hearing health.

Objective: Well-balanced, semantically predictable sentence materials do not exist in the Slovak language. The primary goal of the current study was to develop and validate a set of sentences in stationary, speech-weighted noise that are equally difficult at the 50% point of a performance intensity curve.

Design: Listening tests were performed using a fixed signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), encompassing five different SNR levels. The selected sentences were validated using an adaptive method.

Study sample: Reference data were obtained from native Slovakian adults with normal hearing (85 participants in the first phase and 37 participants in the second phase).

Results: The study yielded 18 sets of 10 sentences with an average fitted SRT (at 50% point) in noise of -4.5 dB SNR (SD = ±0.6 dB). The average slope of the performance intensity function was 14.4%/dB (SD = ±3.8%/dB).

Conclusions: The Slovakian sentence test material can assess speech understanding in noise across various clinical and non-clinical applications.

Objective: This study used the frequency following response (FFR) as an objective measure to understand the effects of varying spectral cues on brainstem neural representation in response to noise-vocoded speech, and describe the relationship between behavioural vowel recognition and the FFR peak F0 amplitudes.

Design: A within-subjects design was used to compare behavioural vowel recognition using the Iowa vowel stimuli and FFRs in response to a/da/stimulus in an unprocessed condition as well as five noise-vocoded conditions with varying numbers of simulated channels (1, 2, 4, 8, and 16).

Study sample: Fifteen adult listeners with normal hearing participated.

Results: Behavioural vowel recognition performance improved significantly when the number of channels increased from 2-4, 4-8, 8-16, and 16 to unprocessed. However, no significant increases in FFR peak F0 amplitudes were seen across any condition. Additionally, no relationship was observed between F0 amplitudes and behavioural vowel recognition scores.

Conclusions: Improvements in noise-vocoded speech perception are driven by increases in spectral resolution (i.e., channel number), whereas FFRs are driven by temporal periodicity in vocoded signal waveforms. Consequently, FFRs may grossly capture neural phase-locking to the temporal features of vocoded signals but may not be a useful index for understanding how changes in spectral resolution impact perception.

Objective: This study investigated whether the SONNET 2 audio processor's ambient noise reduction (ANR) algorithm improves speech recognition and listening effort in cochlear implant (CI) users as a function of different noise signals.

Design: Speech recognition and listening effort were measured in the presence of four different noise signals, including stationary and fluctuating noise, and including a speech masker. Speech was presented from the front (S0) and noise from two sources from the back (N ± 135).

Study sample: 20 adult CI users.

Results: With the ANR, speech recognition significantly improved in the presence of one stationary noise and in the presence of one fluctuating noise. The ANR had no significant effect on listening effort.

Conclusions: When activating the ANR algorithm of the SONNET 2 audio processor, speech recognition improved in some conditions. Listening effort was equal in all conditions. In corresponding everyday situations, it can be recommended to use the ANR algorithm.

Objective: To develop a methodologically uniform digits-in-noise (DIN) test in 17 different languages.

Design: The DIN test was developed for Android devices as an extension to the open-access Hearing Test^™ app, available on the Google Play store. It utilised professionally recorded female speech, speech-shaped noise, a digit scoring method and a variable step size. The test was adaptively optimised and evaluated as the results of tests taken online by users of the app became available.

Study sample: Optimisation using 35,534 ears, evaluation using 6012 ears.

Results: Optimisation improved the slopes of the psychometric functions for all languages by an average of 6.8%/dB. Evaluation included calculation of normative speech reception thresholds (SRTs) and estimation of test-retest standard deviations. Normative values for SRTs ranged from -14.2 dB SNR (95% CI -14.3 to -14.0) for Chinese to -11.2 dB SNR (95% CI -11.3 to -11.1) for Japanese, with reliability estimates ranging from 0.48 dB (95% CI 0.36-0.64) for Portuguese to 0.91 dB (95% CI 0.73-1.21) for Romanian.

Conclusions: The optimisation of each language version was confirmed by the improvement in the slopes of the psychometric functions. The normative values obtained from the test evaluation were in agreement with literature data.

Trial registration: Science Support Centre of Wroclaw Medical University BW-59/2020.

Objectives: This study investigates the short-term effects of degraded auditory input on the right ear advantage (REA) and the REA following long-term exposure to vocoder-processed sounds, which simulate cochlear implant (CI) hearing. Vocoder processing allows normal hearing individuals to experience CI-like hearing conditions, enabling an exploration of how modifications to auditory input influence the REA.

Design: A repeated-measures design was employed. Twenty-two normal-hearing participants completed dichotic word recognition tests under three auditory conditions: bilateral normal hearing, short-term vocoder-processed hearing, and long-term vocoder-processing hearing. REA was assessed after one month of training with vocoder-processed words to simulate long-term exposure.

Study sample: The study included 22 normal-hearing participants aged 19-28 years. All participants had normal hearing and no history of auditory or neurological disorders.

Results: REA significantly decreased under the short-term vocoder condition compared to the normal hearing condition (p < 0.001). However, after long-term training, REA significantly improved (p < 0.001), and this improvement approached normal hearing levels (p = 0.28).

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that short-term exposure to vocoder-processed auditory input disrupts the REA, but extended training can restore it. These results provide insights into cortical plasticity and its role in auditory adaptation, with potential implications for developing rehabilitation strategies for CI users.

Objective: The current 'gold standard' of audiometry relies on subjective behavioural responses, which is impractical and unreliable for certain groups such as children, individuals with severe disabilities, or the disabled elderly. This study aims to validating blindly a novel electroencephalography (EEG) technique to estimate audiometric thresholds quickly.

Design: Air-conduction audiometric thresholds at 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, and 8000 Hz at 5 dB resolution were measured using three different systems: the novel EEG system, conventional pure-tone audiometry (PTA), and an automated behavioural test with the same stimulus properties as in the EEG test. EEG data were collected for 15 min from 32 semi-dry EEG electrodes. Later, the EEG system was trimmed to 8 electrodes and 7.5 min of data with satisfactory results. EEG and PTA thresholds were estimated blindly.

Study sample: Audiometric thresholds were estimated from 10 elderly patients with asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss and five normal hearing young adults at both ears.

Results: Correlation and regression analysis validated the hearing thresholds derived from both EEG configurations relative to the behavioural hearing thresholds - Spearman's correlation of 0.78 between PTA and 8-electrode 7.5-min EEG data.

Conclusions: The results of this study open the door to rapid and objective hearing threshold estimation with EEG.

Objective: To describe the development and implementation of a management pathway for infants and young children identified with permanent unilateral hearing loss within an early hearing detection and intervention program in Ontario, Canada.

Design: An integrated knowledge translation approach was used to synthesise knowledge and generate a product: an updated clinical practice guideline. Current unilateral hearing loss guidelines were combined with the results of a scoping literature review focusing on technology options and outcomes for children with limited usable hearing unilaterally.

Collaborators: Five paediatric audiologists partnered with two researchers to develop the knowledge product. A draft was provided to 75 audiologists who provide amplification services and was subsequently tailored to support clinical uptake by incorporating the audiologists' comments.

Results: The updated clinical practice guideline describes a care pathway for children with unilateral hearing loss. Tools and graphics were developed as part of the integrated knowledge translation approach. Following standardised, competency-based training, the co-created guideline was implemented.

Conclusions: Through an integrated knowledge translation approach, an updated unilateral hearing loss clinical practice guideline was co-created and implemented. The guideline provides information for the management of infants and young children with permanent unilateral hearing loss to support the operationalisation of current evidence-informed care.