Auditory filter bandwidths and time constants were obtained with five normal-hearing subjects for different masker configurations both in the frequency and time domain for monaural and binaural listening conditions. Specifically, the masking level in the monaural condition and the interaural correlation in the binaural conditions, respectively, was changed in a sinusoidal, stepwise, and rectangular way in the frequency domain. In the corresponding experiments in the time domain, a sinusoidal and stepwise change of the masker was performed. From these results, a comparison was made across conditions to evaluate the influence of the factors "shape of transition," "monaural versus binaural," "frequency domain versus time domain," and "subject." Also, the respective data from the literature were considered using the same model assumptions and fitting strategy as used for the current data. The results indicate that the monaural auditory filter bandwidths and time constants fitted to the data are consistent across conditions both for the data included in this study and the data from the literature. No consistent relation between individual auditory filter bandwidths and time constants were found across subjects. For the binaural conditions, however, considerable differences were found in estimates of the bandwidths and time constants, respectively, across conditions. The reason for this mismatch seems to be the different detection strategies employed for the various tasks that are affected by the consistency of binaural information across frequency and time. While monaural detection performance appears to be modeled quite well with a linear filter or temporal integration window, this does not hold for the binaural conditions where both larger bandwidth and time constant estimates are found.
The German translation of the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) was used in a variety of studies including a retrospective mailing campaign and three field tests on recently launched hearing aids. The psychometric properties were compared with each other and with results of previous studies in the U.S.A, Wales, and the Netherlands. Like the English and the Dutch version, the German IOI-HA showed high internal consistency, and factor analyses as well as inter-item correlations indicated the existence of a two-dimensional scale. Furthermore, the IOI turned out to be a valid instrument for distinguishing satisfied and non-satisfied customers during the trial period of a hearing aid.
Objective: IOI-HA response data are conventionally analysed assuming that the ordinal responses have interval-scale properties. This study critically considers this assumption and compares the conventional approach with a method using Item Response Theory (IRT). Design: A Bayesian IRT analysis model was implemented and applied to several IOI-HA data sets. Study sample: Anonymised IOI-HA responses from 13273 adult users of one or two hearing aids in 11 data sets using the Australian English, Dutch, German and Swedish versions of the IOI-HA. Results: The raw ordinal responses to IOI-HA items do not represent values on interval scales. Using the conventional rating sum as an overall score introduces a scale error corresponding to about 10 À 15% of the true standard deviation in the population. Some interesting and statistically credible differences were demonstrated among the included data sets. Conclusions: It is questionable to apply conventional statistical measures like mean, variance, t-tests, etc., on the raw IOI-HA ratings. It is recommended to apply only nonparametric statistical test methods for comparisons of IOI-HA results between groups. The scale error can sometimes cause incorrect conclusions when individual results are compared. The IRT approach is recommended for analysis of individual results.
Due to diffraction, acute acoustic trauma usually causes symmetrical hearing loss. Acoustical shadow effects are relevant only at distances greater than 1 m to the sound source and frequencies greater than 1000 Hz. In case of pronounced asymmetrical hearing loss causal connection to acute acoustic trauma is unlikely. We describe two cases with pronounced asymmetrical hearing loss in spite of symmetrical acute acoustic trauma. In the first case two patients headed an exploding giant tyre in a distance of approximately 1-2 m. One of them--as expected--got a symmetrical inner ear damage. On the other hand the other patient, which stayed directly besides him, got a pronounced asymmetrical inner ear damage. In an additional case we found also asymmetrical inner ear damage after symmetrical noise exposure. In this case it was detected, that years ago the patient suffered from a menieriform attack in the now worse ear. Occult inner ear damage is discussed as a reason for the phenomenon of pronounced asymmetrical inner ear damage after symmetrical noise exposure.
The individual fitting of hearing aids is still a challenge and usually requires several sessions. The audiologist typically fine-tunes the hearing aids based on the patient’s reported perception. Recent research investigated the alternative of empowering the patient by means of self adjustment. However, all known studies on self-adjustment procedures have so far focused on symmetric hearing loss and a symmetrical signal modification adjustable by the user. It is therefore still unknown how to deal with severe asymmetric hearing losses. In this study, we examined a previously evaluated self-adjustmentprocedure for symmetric hearing losses with respect to its applicability for asymmetric hearing losses. For this purpose, experienced hearing-aid users with asymmetric hearing loss were fitted with real hearing aids and equipped with a self-adjustment user interface. Each fitting was performed in several realistic sound scenes in two conditions: first, the two hearing aids were fitted separately; second, both hearing aids were fitted in a coupled way and then fine-tuned separately. In addition to the comparison between the gain settings resulting from the self-adjustments the study examined also subjective sound impressions such as the balance of the sound in both ears.
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