Auditory profiling as a tool for characterizing individual hearing deficits: Data-driven analysis of the results of the BEAR test battery

Beskrivelse

Background: One aim of the Better hEAring Rehabilitation (BEAR) project is to define a new clinical profiling tool, a test-battery, for individualized hearing loss characterization. Whereas the loss of sensitivity can be efficiently assessed by pure-tone audiometry, it still remains a challenge to address supra-threshold hearing deficits using appropriate clinical diagnostic tools. In contrast to the classical attenuation-distortion model, the proposed BEAR approach is based on the hypothesis that any listener’s hearing can be characterized along two dimensions reflecting largely independent types of perceptual distortions. Recently, a data-driven approach (Sanchez-Lopez et al., 2018) provided evidence consistent with the existence of two independent sources of distortion, and thus different auditory profiles.

Method: Eleven tests were selected for the clinical test battery, based on their feasibility, time efficiency and related evidence from literature. The proposed tests were divided into six categories: audibility, middle-ear analysis, speech perception, binaural-processing abilities, loudness perception, and spectro-temporal resolution. Fifty-seven listeners with symmetric, mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss were selected from a clinical population of hearing-aid users. The participants completed all tests in a clinical environment and did not receive systematic training for any of the tasks.

Results: The analysis of the preliminary results will focus on the ability of each test to pinpoint individual differences among the participants, relationships among the different tests, and determining their potential use in clinical settings. Importantly, a parallel study will evaluate the extent to which the outcomes of these tests can be used for hearing-aid fitting.

Conclusion: Based on the results of a data-driven analysis for auditory profiling, the test battery will be refined and implemented as a clinical profiling tool in audiology clinics.

Periode	23. maj 2019
Begivenhedstitel	14th Congress of the European Federation of Audiology Societies
Begivenhedstype	Konference
Placering	Lisbon, Portugal
Grad af anerkendelse	International