BACKGROUND Frequency-lowering signal processing in hearing aids has re-emerged as an option to improve audibility of the high frequencies by expanding the input bandwidth. Few studies have investigated the usefulness of the scheme as an option for bimodal users (i.e., combined use of a cochlear implant and a contralateral hearing aid). In this study, that question was posed. PURPOSE The purpo...

OBJECTIVE Inability to understand speech in noise has been cited repeatedly as the principal complaint of hearing aid users. While data exist documenting the benefit provided by hearing aids with directional microphones when listening to speech in noise, little work has been done to develop a standard clinical protocol for fitting these hearing aids. Our goal was to evaluate a clinical measure ...

PURPOSE To determine whether specific sentence recognition assessments were sensitive enough to serve as objective outcome measurements that document subjective improvements in speech understanding with hearing aids. METHOD The Revised Speech Perception in Noise test (R-SPIN; R. C. Bilger, J. M. Nuetzel, W. M. Rabinowitz, & C. Rzeczkowski, 1984), the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT; M. Nilsson, S...

We present a visual aid for the hearing impaired to enable access to internet videos. The visual tool is in the form of a time synchronized lip movement corresponding to the speech in the video which is embedded in the original internet video. Conventionally, access to the audio or speech, in a video, by the hearing impaired is provided by means of either text subtitles or sign language gesture...

OBJECTIVES The dual-task paradigm has been widely used to measure listening effort. The primary objectives of the study were to (1) investigate the effect of hearing aid amplification and a hearing aid directional technology on listening effort measured by a complicated, more real world dual-task paradigm and (2) compare the results obtained with this paradigm to a simpler laboratory-style dual...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between cortical processing of speech and benefit from hearing aids in individuals with auditory dys-synchrony. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data were collected from 38 individuals with auditory dys-synchrony. Participants were selected based on hearing thresholds, middle ear reflexes, otoacoustic emissions, and auditory ...

With regard to the practice of hearing aid fittings, presently there is no unanimous concurrence among audiologists and speech-language pathologists as to what constitutes a successful hearing aid fitting. Many audiologists’ beliefs on successful fittings often lie with only one of the following levels namely impairment level, activity level, participation level, satisfaction level, health rela...

OBJECTIVES Speech intelligibility is severely affected in children with congenital profound hearing loss. Hypernasality is a problem commonly encountered in their speech. Auditory information received from cochlear implants is expected to be far superior to that from hearing aids. Our study aimed at comparing the percentages of nasality in the speech of the cochlear implantees with hearing aid ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate patients' opinions of the bone-anchored hearing aid (BAHA) compared with a conventional hearing aid. DESIGN Prospective study with two questionnaires. Questionnaire A consisted of questions that compared patients' previous hearing aid with the BAHA. Questionnaire B consisted of questions about the patients' experiences with the hearing aids. PATIENTS Sixty-five consecu...