Hearing Loss
Conditions
Brief summary
Hearing impaired persons suffer from inferior music perception with and without hearing aids. Hearing aids, however, are primarily designed to improve speech intelligibility not music enjoyment. This study investigates the potential benefit of signal processing strategies that are optimized for music. The purpose of this study is to improve music compression for hearing impaired people.
Interventions
OTHERAudio signal processing (applied offline before playback)
Sponsors
Phonak AG, Switzerland
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
DOUBLE (Subject, Investigator)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to 99 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Female and male adults between 18 and 99 years * German-speaking * Symmetric, mild to severe, ski-slope hearing loss * Binaural hearing aid user without frequency lowering * Informed Consent as documented by signature
Exclusion criteria
* Have taken part in a study at Phonak within 4 months prior to the first session * People with mental-health problems * People whose audiogram is older than 12 months and it is not possible make a reliable measurement * Very limited motor activity or mobility
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Benefit of signal processing for music perception | 3 months | Participants rate the enjoyment of music in 4 separate sessions, spread over an anticipated time frame of 3 months. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Performance in music discrimination tests | 3 months | Participants perform an adaptive music discrimination test in which their discrimination thresholds are measured. |
Countries
Switzerland
Outcome results
None listed