Objective estimation of the listening effort: Towards a neuropsychological and neurophysical model

Abstract

Modern hearing aid fitting could be revolutionized by the availability of objective methods for the listening effort estimation. However experimental and theoretical research dealing with this subject is still in its infancy. In this paper we present first results towards a neuropsychological and neurophysical model for the objective estimation of the listening effort by electroencephalographic data. Our model is based on intended endogenously driven top-down projections represented by corticothalamic feedback dynamics for auditory stream selection and their large-scale correlates in auditory evoked late responses. The predictions of the presented model are compared to experimental data obtained during different auditory tasks which required a graduated effort for their solutions. The experimental data verified the model predictions.It is concluded that the proposed neuropsychological and neurophysical modeling of stream selection provides an appropriate framework for listening effort estimation. The presented preliminary results of an ongoing study are encouraging,however, further focal research is necessary in order to estimate in how far the presented model and future extensions might support modern hearing aid fitting in practice.

On the feasibility of objective listening effort estimations by electroencephalographic correlates of corticofugal modulations

“…Our results provide an experimental reinforcement of our hypothesis derived in [7] using a large study group of subjects.…”

Electrophysiological correlates of listening effort: neurodynamical modeling and measurement

“…Partly, we have been able to map the obtained results to the problem of objective listening effort estimation in Strauss et al (2008b).…”

Toward a taxonomic model of attention in effortful listening

“…On the one hand, behavioral and psychophysiological measures frequently associated with listening effort such as pupil dilation, response time, dual-task interference, and various neuroimaging techniques may provide a more sensitive estimate of task demand than do simple measures of performance, and therefore may enable more sophisticated investigations of the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying listening and speech perception (cf. Strauss, Corona-Strauss, & Froehlich, 2008 ; Strauss et al, 2010 ; Bernarding, Strauss, Hannemann, Seidler, & Corona-Strauss, 2013 ; Wild et al, 2012 ; Wisniewski et al, 2015 ; Kramer, Teunissen, & Zekveld, 2016 ; Mackersie & Calderon-Moultrie, 2016 ). In particular, there are cases, especially associated with the effects of aging and hearing impairment, in which measures related to listening effort are more sensitive than simple performance measures such as proportion of words correctly recognized, and therefore such measures can be more relevant than other performance measures in cases in which the problem is no longer whether something can be understood, but rather how easy it is to do so (Desjardins & Doherty, 2014 ; Tun, McCoy, & Wingfield, 2009 , Bernarding, Strauss, Hannemann, Seidler, & Corona-Strauss, 2017 ).…”