Seminars in Hearing最新文献

The continuous advancements in technologies supporting digital health and digital therapeutics (DTx) bring new possibilities to the field of audiology. This study considers a new DTx for tinnitus called Tinnibot and the willingness of a group of Australian university audiology students to consider this new DTx in their future careers as practicing audiologists. A single-group case-series design (pretest/posttest) was used to examine the opinions of 10 university audiology students before and after participating in a 2-hour information workshop on the topics of tinnitus, DTx, cognitive behavioral therapy, and a new digital therapy tool for tinnitus called Tinnibot. Student knowledge levels of the main topic areas increased from poor (before the workshop) to moderate to high after the workshop, with 40% of participants reporting they would very likely use digital therapies for future patients. A common barrier to improving this rating was the need for direct hands-on training on the DTx before the students would be confident to recommend the DTx to patients. Incorporating direct training on DTx into university audiology programs would allow greater uptake of DTx by students as they begin their careers as practicing audiologists.

The hearing healthcare industry is evolving rapidly. A framework addressing provision options in contemporary hearing care could assist clinician and client navigate their options to find the most appropriate solution for each individual. A PRISMA approach was used followed by mapping, validation, and thematic analysis to produce a framework to better describe and discuss service and product delivery options in contemporary hearing care. No frameworks were identified to advise matching needs with current provision options in audiological care. Charting, mapping, and thematic analysis of the validation criteria and hearing care literature produced three core domains: Service, Channel, and Technology/Device. The framework developed in this review allows for an understanding of where innovation is occurring in hearing healthcare and differentiates between changes to technology, channel, and service. New questions open up such as whether one model is more effective than another or which model of hearing help is best for which type of person. This framework allows for the disambiguation of hearing health services, hearing loss technology, and the channel in which services and technology are delivered. It has potential to be a versatile and valuable addition to the industry of hearing healthcare.

Healthcare systems are traditionally a clinician-led and reactive structure that does not promote clients managing their health issues or concerns from an early stage. However, when clients are proactive in starting their healthcare earlier than later, they can achieve better outcomes and quality of life. Hearing healthcare and the rehabilitation journey currently fit into this reactive and traditional model of care. With the development of service delivery models evolving to offer services to the consumer online and where they are predominately getting their healthcare information from the internet and the advancement of digital applications and hearing devices beyond traditional hearing aid structures, we are seeing a change in how consumers engage in hearing care. Similarly, as the range of hearing devices evolves with increasingly blended and standard levels of technology across consumer earbuds/headphones and medical grade hearing aids, we are seeing a convergence of consumers engaging earlier and becoming increasingly aware of hearing health needs. This article will discuss how the channels, service, and technology are coming together to reform traditionally clinician-led healthcare models to an earlier consumer-led model and the benefits and limitations associated with it. Additionally, we look to explore advances in hearing technologies and services, and if these will or can contribute to a behavioral change in the hearing healthcare journey of consumers.

The goal of this study was to examine the effect of hearing loss on theta and alpha electroencephalography (EEG) frequency power measures of performance monitoring and cognitive inhibition, respectively, during a speech-in-noise task. It was hypothesized that hearing loss would be associated with an increase in the peak power of theta and alpha frequencies toward easier conditions compared to normal hearing adults. The shift would reflect how hearing loss modulates the recruitment of listening effort to easier listening conditions. Nine older adults with normal hearing (ONH) and 10 older adults with hearing loss (OHL) participated in this study. EEG data were collected from all participants while they completed the words-in-noise task. It hypothesized that hearing loss would also have an effect on theta and alpha power. The ONH group showed an inverted U -shape effect of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), but there were limited effects of SNR on theta or alpha power in the OHL group. The results of the ONH group support the growing body of literature showing effects of listening conditions on alpha and theta power. The null results of listening condition in the OHL group add to a smaller body of literature, suggesting that listening effort research conditions should have near ceiling performance.

Listening effort is a long-standing area of interest in auditory cognitive neuroscience. Prior research has used multiple techniques to shed light on the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying listening during challenging conditions. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is growing in popularity as a tool for cognitive neuroscience research, and its recent advances offer many potential advantages over other neuroimaging modalities for research related to listening effort. This review introduces the basic science of fNIRS and its uses for auditory cognitive neuroscience. We also discuss its application in recently published studies on listening effort and consider future opportunities for studying effortful listening with fNIRS. After reading this article, the learner will know how fNIRS works and summarize its uses for listening effort research. The learner will also be able to apply this knowledge toward generation of future research in this area.

Knowledge about listening difficulty experienced during a task can be used to better understand speech perception processes, to guide amplification outcomes, and can be used by individuals to decide whether to participate in communication. Another factor affecting these decisions is individuals' emotional response which has not been measured objectively previously. In this study, we describe a novel method of measuring listening difficulty and affect of individuals in adverse listening situations using automatic facial expression algorithm. The purpose of our study was to determine if facial expressions of confusion and frustration are sensitive to changes in listening difficulty. We recorded speech recognition scores, facial expressions, subjective listening effort scores, and subjective emotional responses in 33 young participants with normal hearing. We used the signal-to-noise ratios of -1, +2, and +5 dB SNR and quiet conditions to vary the difficulty level. We found that facial expression of confusion and frustration increased with increase in difficulty level, but not with change in each level. We also found a relationship between facial expressions and both subjective emotion ratings and subjective listening effort. Emotional responses in the form of facial expressions show promise as a measure of affect and listening difficulty. Further research is needed to determine the specific contribution of affect to communication in challenging listening environments.

Listening amidst competing noise taxes one's limited cognitive resources, leading to increased listening effort. As such, there is interest in incorporating a reliable test of listening effort into the clinical test battery. One clinically promising method for measuring listening effort is verbal response time (VRT) because it can be obtained using already-established clinical tasks. In order for widespread implementation of the VRT paradigm, a better understanding of the psychometric properties is needed. The purpose of this work was to improve the understanding of the reliability and sensitivity of the VRT listening task. Using within-subject study designs, we completed a pilot study to evaluate the test-retest reliability (Study 1) and the effects of task instructions and listening condition (Study 2). Preliminary results show that the VRT paradigm enjoys good to excellent test-retest reliability and that neither task instructions nor listening condition meaningfully influence VRT once measurement error is accounted for. Future studies should account for measurement error when considering statistically significant versus meaningful effects of experimental parameters when using listening effort tasks.

This article offers a collection of observations that highlight the value of time course data in pupillometry and points out ways in which these observations create deeper understanding of listening effort. The main message is that listening effort should be considered on a moment-to-moment basis rather than as a singular amount. A review of various studies and the reanalysis of data reveal distinct signatures of effort before a stimulus, during a stimulus, in the moments after a stimulus, and changes over whole experimental testing sessions. Collectively these observations motivate questions that extend beyond the "amount" of effort, toward understanding how long the effort lasts, and how precisely someone can allocate effort at specific points in time or reduce effort at other times. Apparent disagreements between studies are reconsidered as informative lessons about stimulus selection and the nature of pupil dilation as a reflection of decision making rather than the difficulty of sensory encoding.

About one-third of all recently published studies on listening effort have used at least one physiological measure, providing evidence of the popularity of such measures in listening effort research. However, the specific measures employed, as well as the rationales used to justify their inclusion, vary greatly between studies, leading to a literature that is fragmented and difficult to integrate. A unified approach that assesses multiple psychophysiological measures justified by a single rationale would be preferable because it would advance our understanding of listening effort. However, such an approach comes with a number of challenges, including the need to develop a clear definition of listening effort that links to specific physiological measures, customized equipment that enables the simultaneous assessment of multiple measures, awareness of problems caused by the different timescales on which the measures operate, and statistical approaches that minimize the risk of type-I error inflation. This article discusses in detail the various obstacles for combining multiple physiological measures in listening effort research and provides recommendations on how to overcome them.