Home > April 2003 - Volume 24 - Issue 2

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April 2003 - Volume 24 - Issue 2

pp: 99-190

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Editorial

Svirsky, Mario A.

Svirsky, Mario A. Less

Ear and Hearing. 24(2):99, April 2003.

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Articles

Deriving the Real-Ear SPL of Audiometric Data Using the “Coupler to Dial Difference” and the “Real Ear to Coupler Difference”

Munro, K. J.; Davis, J.

Munro, K. J.; Davis, J. Less

Ear and Hearing. 24(2):100-110, April 2003.

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Although a probe-tube microphone can be used to measure real-ear sound pressure level (SPL) directly, it is not always possible to undertake extensive real-ear measurements in certain populations, especially infants and children. The purpose of the study was to compare the measured real-ear SPL of audiometer output with the derived real-ear SPL obtained by adding the coupler to dial difference (CDD) and real-ear to coupler difference (RECD) to the audiometer dial reading. The study used 16 normally hearing subjects with the CDD and RECD measured in an HA1 and an HA2 2-cc coupler using an EAR-LINK foam ear-tip and a customized earmold. The mean difference between the measured and derived real-ear SPL was generally less than 1 dB and rarely exceeded 3 dB in any subject. This means that a valid estimate of real-ear SPL can be obtained using the CDD and RECD when it has not been possible to measure real-ear SPL directly.

An Abbreviated Word Recognition Protocol Based on Item Difficulty

Hurley, Raymond M.; Sells, Janet P.

Hurley, Raymond M.; Sells, Janet P. Less

Ear and Hearing. 24(2):111-118, April 2003.

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The purpose of this investigation was to develop a test methodology that would identify those patients requiring a full 50 item word recognition test and allow abbreviated testing of patients who do not need a full 50 item word recognition test. Listeners with normal hearing and listeners with sensorineural hearing loss were administered Auditec™ recordings of a 50 word NU-6 list(s). From these listener responses, error rates were determined for each word in the NU-6 word pool. The NU-6 lists were reordered based on decreasing word difficulty and 10 word and 25 word screening tests were developed. The predictive power of the 10 word and 25 word screening tests was determined using clinical decision analysis (CDA). CDA analyses showed that the 10 word and 25 word screening tests have hit rate (HR) values of 93–100%, false alarm rate (FAR) values of 0–20% and A' values of 0.946–1.00 depending upon word configuration and pass criterion. Thus, the four NU-6 10 word and 25 word screening tests differentiated listeners with impaired word recognition ability who required a full 50 word test from listeners with unimpaired word recognition ability who required only a 10 word or 25 word test.

Hearing Aid Users Benefit from Induction Loop When Using Digital Cellular Phones

Sorri, Martti; Piiparinen, Peeta; Huttunen, Kerttu; More

Sorri, Martti; Piiparinen, Peeta; Huttunen, Kerttu; Haho, Mikko; Tobey, Emily; Thibodeau, Linda; Buckley, Kristi Less

Ear and Hearing. 24(2):119-132, April 2003.

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Hearing aid users often experience problems with electromagnetic interference when using digital cellular phones. This study was undertaken to investigate the possible benefit of an induction loop system developed for use with some cellular phone models. Thirty-two eligible subjects (20 in Oulu, Finland and 12 in Dallas, United States) participated in the study. Sentence recognition scores and subjective judgments using a visual analog scale revealed poor results with the digital cellular phone alone. When an induction loop was used with the digital cellular phones, sentence recognition scores and the visual analog scale scores were better, and comparable to the scores obtained with a landline phone—the test condition used as the reference. Based on the results of the study, induction loops offer one possible solution for the incompatibility problem between hearing aids and digital cellular phones.

Identifying Dead Regions in the Cochlea: Psychophysical Tuning Curves and Tone Detection in Threshold-Equalizing Noise

Summers, Van; Molis, Michelle R.; Müsch, Hannes; More

Summers, Van; Molis, Michelle R.; Müsch, Hannes; Walden, Brian E.; Surr, Rauna K.; Cord, Mary T. Less

Ear and Hearing. 24(2):133-142, April 2003.

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For many listeners with moderate-to-severe high-frequency hearing loss, amplification may increase audibility without improving speech understanding. Recent studies have proposed a direct link between lack of benefit from amplification and nonfunctioning inner hair cell regions in the cochlea (dead regions). Psychophysical tuning curves (PTCs) and tone detection in threshold-equalizing noise (TEN) have been proposed as tasks that may allow detection of dead regions. Assuming that each of these tasks allows reliable identification of dead regions, TEN and PTC results for a single listener should produce the same classification for a given frequency region. The present study examined the consistency of TEN and PTC tasks in identifying these regions. Listeners with high-frequency hearing loss were tested in both tasks. TEN and PTC results agreed on the presence or absence of dead regions at all test frequencies in only 10 of 18 ears, suggesting that at least one task was unreliable as a diagnostic tool. For reasons outlined in the article, it may be appropriate to view PTC results as more reliable in cases where TEN and PTC results disagree. Thus the current results fail to provide support for the TEN task as a reliable diagnostic tool for identification of dead regions.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Azimuth and Elevation Cues for Sound Localization in Human Middle Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials

Polyakov, Andrey; Pratt, Hillel

Polyakov, Andrey; Pratt, Hillel Less

Ear and Hearing. 24(2):143-156, April 2003.

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This study aimed to determine the effects of sound source azimuth and elevation on primary auditory cortex binaural activity. Binaural interaction components of auditory middle latency responses were derived from 15 normally hearing adults at nine virtual spatial locations with different azimuths and elevations. Pa2 equivalent dipole magnitude significantly decreased in response to clicks in the backward positions and in response to right-horizontal clicks in the coronal plane (no elevation). Nb in response to clicks in the back and front positions in the midsagittal plane (medium and no elevation). Significant effects on latencies of Pa2 were found for backward positions (no elevation) in the midsagittal plane. The data suggest that the changes in measures of binaural interaction components across stimulus conditions may reflect spectral tuning in binaural primary auditory cortex neurons processing the frequency cues for sound localization.

An Investigation of Input Level Range for the Nucleus 24 Cochlear Implant System: Speech Perception Performance, Program Preference, and Loudness Comfort Ratings

James, Chris J.; Skinner, Margaret W.; Martin, Lois F. A.; More

James, Chris J.; Skinner, Margaret W.; Martin, Lois F. A.; Holden, Laura K.; Galvin, Karyn L.; Holden, Timothy A.; Whitford, Lesley Less

Ear and Hearing. 24(2):157-174, April 2003.

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Effects of varying the input range characteristics of the Nucleus 24 cochlear implant system were evaluated with 12 subjects. Increasing the microphone input sensitivity (sensitivity control [SC]) by 10.5 dB lowered sound field thresholds by this amount, significantly improved the perception of vowels and consonants presented at 40 and 55 dB SPL, and had no adverse effect on the perception of sentences presented in babble at 65 dB SPL. An increase of 8 to 10 dB in the instantaneous input dynamic range (base level) gave some improvement in the perception of consonants, no improvement for vowels, and the mean score for sentences presented in babble was significantly reduced. To achieve better recognition of low-level stimuli, SC settings higher than the default of 8 are needed. For these higher settings to provide loudness comfort for the individual recipient in everyday life, it is necessary to adjust other parameters, such as map C levels, automatic sensitivity control, and base level.

Tolerable Hearing Aid Delays. III. Effects on Speech Production and Perception of Across-Frequency Variation in Delay

Stone, Michael A.; Moore, Brian C. J.

Stone, Michael A.; Moore, Brian C. J. Less

Ear and Hearing. 24(2):175-183, April 2003.

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The healthy cochlea has finer frequency resolution at low frequencies than at high. Signal-processing hearing aids that attempt to mimic this will delay the low-frequency end of the spectrum more than the high-frequency end. This experiment assessed the effects of frequency-dependent delay on subjective and objective measures of speech production and perception. Subjective disturbance increased progressively with increasing across-frequency delay. Relatively small across-frequency delays gave rise to significant changes in speech identification. It appears desirable to compensate, at least in part, for across-frequency delays introduced by any processing.

Electrically Evoked Auditory Brain Stem Responses for Lateral and Medial Placement of the Clarion HiFocus Electrode

Firszt, Jill B.; Wackym, Phillip A.; Gaggl, Wolfgang; More

Firszt, Jill B.; Wackym, Phillip A.; Gaggl, Wolfgang; Burg, Linda S.; Reeder, Ruth M. Less

Ear and Hearing. 24(2):184-190, April 2003.

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In the past few years there has been a great deal of interest in new cochlear implant designs that make intracochlear electrodes lie closer to the medial wall, and therefore closer to the neurons that are electrically stimulated by the implant. Animal research and cochlear modeling have suggested that with this kind of “perimodiolar” placement electrophysiologic thresholds are reduced and electrical dynamic range may be increased. The current study extends these earlier results to human patients by measuring electrically evoked auditory brain stem responses (EABR) intraoperatively before and after placement of the Clarion electrode positioning system (EPS), a device intended design to improve perimodiolar placement. Results from this study indicate that the effect of the EPS was greatest for the basal location, demonstrated by lower wave V thresholds and a larger percentage increase in wave V amplitude. The EABR reflected electrophysiologic changes relative to lateral-to-medial changes in intracochlear electrode position due to the EPS.

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Editorial
Articles

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Editorial

Editorial

Articles

Deriving the Real-Ear SPL of Audiometric Data Using the “Coupler to Dial Difference” and the “Real Ear to Coupler Difference”

In Brief:

An Abbreviated Word Recognition Protocol Based on Item Difficulty

In Brief:

Hearing Aid Users Benefit from Induction Loop When Using Digital Cellular Phones

In Brief:

Identifying Dead Regions in the Cochlea: Psychophysical Tuning Curves and Tone Detection in Threshold-Equalizing Noise

In Brief:

Electrophysiological Correlates of Azimuth and Elevation Cues for Sound Localization in Human Middle Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials

In Brief:

An Investigation of Input Level Range for the Nucleus 24 Cochlear Implant System: Speech Perception Performance, Program Preference, and Loudness Comfort Ratings

In Brief:

Tolerable Hearing Aid Delays. III. Effects on Speech Production and Perception of Across-Frequency Variation in Delay

In Brief:

Electrically Evoked Auditory Brain Stem Responses for Lateral and Medial Placement of the Clarion HiFocus Electrode

In Brief:

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