Acoustic Reflex Threshold Measurement in Hearing Aid Selection

Acoustic Reflexes in Hearing Aid Evaluation

“…Basson 47 replicated the study by Rappaport and Tait 39 for Afrikaans monosyllabic word material (signal-to-noise ratio [S/N] = +10 dB). Aided speech intelligibility was measured at four different gain settings: -10, 0, and +10 dB relative to the ART for 50 dB speech noise stimulation and most comfortable gain setting.…”

Acoustic Reflexes and Auditory Evoked Responses in Hearing Aid Evaluation

“…Tato and Rainville emphasize the clinical value of ARTs in hearing aid selection in some of their young patients, but also point out that the technique could not be fully exploited in infants with severe-to-profound hearing loss. In the same year, Rappaport and Tait (1976) reported a clinical study in an adult population. Subjects were 18 male Veterans Hospital patients (mean age, 57.3 years) with binaural, sensorineural hearing im-pairment.…”

“…The literature on the application of acoustic reflexes in hearing aid evaluation dates back to the infancy of clinical impedance audiometry and is truly international (McCandless and Miller, 1972;Shallop, 1973;Horning, 1975;Tonisson, 1975;Esser, 1976;Rappaport and Tait, 1976;Snow and McCandless, 1976;Tato and Rainville, 1976;Kiessling, 1978Kiessling, , 1980Kiessling, , 1982Esser and Rodina, 1979;Keith, 1979aKeith, , 1979bMcCandless and Keith, 1980;Navarro, 1980;Stecker, 1982;Rines, Stelmachowitz, and Gorga, 1984). The earliest systematic study of acoustic reflexes in hearing aid fitting, perhaps, was by an Australian, William Tonisson (1975).…”

“…Importantly, more than 60 percent of the subjects yielded their highest speech recognition score at the ART "setting. Rappaport and Tait (1976) conclude that "measurement of an aided ART does have clinical utility" (p. 131).…”

“…He had found that in patients with cochlear impairment, the ART and MCL were elic ited at approximately the same intensity, whereas the LDL intensity was usually 18 dB greater. Using a 70 dB sound pressure level (SPL) speech signal (see test condi tions just described for Rappaport and Tait [1976]), Keith (1979b) adjusted the gain of the hearing aid to a level just below the first evidence of acoustic reflex activity. At this level, subjects were queried, and 62.5 per cent stated that the amplified speech was "too soft," 35 percent were at MCL, and one subject (2.5 percent complained that it was "too loud."…”