Formal auditory training in adult hearing aid users

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONIndividuals with sensorineural hearing loss are often able to regain some lost auditory function with the help of hearing aids. However, hearing aids are not able to overcome auditory distortions such as impaired frequency resolution and speech understanding in noisy environments. The coexistence of peripheral hearing loss and a central auditory deficit may contribute to patient dissatisfaction with amplification, even when audiological tests indicate nearly normal hearing thresholds.OBJECTIVEThis study was designed to validate the effects of a formal auditory training program in adult hearing aid users with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss.METHODSFourteen bilateral hearing aid users were divided into two groups: seven who received auditory training and seven who did not. The training program was designed to improve auditory closure, figure-to-ground for verbal and nonverbal sounds and temporal processing (frequency and duration of sounds). Pre- and post-training evaluations included measuring electrophysiological and behavioral auditory processing and administration of the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) self-report scale.RESULTSThe post-training evaluation of the experimental group demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in P3 latency, improved performance in some of the behavioral auditory processing tests and higher hearing aid benefit in noisy situations (p-value < 0,05). No changes were noted for the control group (p-value <0,05).CONCLUSIONThe results demonstrated that auditory training in adult hearing aid users can lead to a reduction in P3 latency, improvements in sound localization, memory for nonverbal sounds in sequence, auditory closure, figure-to-ground for verbal sounds and greater benefits in reverberant and noisy environments.

Treinamento auditivo acusticamente controlado em um indivíduo adulto após traumatismo cranioencefálico

“…auditory abilities after ACAT, due to the alteration of the neural substrate, reaffirming the data of this research, suggesting the ACAT as a rehabilitation tool for central auditory deficits 9,19,20 .…”

“…The data found in the DCVT Test -Free Recall (Tables 2) demonstrated that the individual presented a greater number of right ear hits in the two moments after ACAT, that is, he showed an right ear advantage that he did not initially demonstrated, which is often associated to left hemispheric dominance for linguistic sounds in right-handed individuals 15 . plasticity 20,[23][24][25][26] . In this case, the extent of the change was the amplitude of the wave.…”

Efeito da estimulação acústica nas habilidades do processamento temporal em idosos antes e após a protetização auditiva

“…In the present study, the moderate or moderately severe hearing loss did not impact the performance of the elderly in these tasks of recognizing the duration pattern, and the mean values are within the range of mean values of the studies with elderly listed in the literature [33][34][35][36] . Numerous studies report that the process of selecting and fitting hearing aids must consider the HLD (C) caused by the age effect, as the difficulty to discriminate temporal clues which identify speech contrasts 2,3,26 . There is still no consensus in the specialized literature whether only using a hearing aid improves auditory skills or if it is necessary to perform and auditory training so as to have a change in auditory behavior.…”

“…This skill must be analyzed by means of tests involving the temporal pattern recognition of pure tones, such as the Pattern Duration Test (PDT), which is considered a sensitive tool to identify lesions to the Central Nervous Auditory System (CANS), and it also does not suffer impacts from peripheral hearing loss 23,24 . The improvement in speech recognition caused by the use of a hearing aid usually happens between six and 12 weeks after using the amplification device, a time span called acclimatization 25 ; however, changes may not happen in elderly with impairment in auditory processing hearing skills, especially that of temporal aspects associated to sound stimulus frequency, intensity and duration 26 . The use of digital technology and the progress in signal processing have brought about great benefits concerning the communication of patients with presbycusis.…”

Aging Auditory System and Amplification

“…Research claim that therein lies the importance of ear training because it will occur with an improvement in electrophysiological response (latency wave III in ABR) in auditory localization and speech understanding in noise [41].…”