Frequency-specific hearing loss drives multi-band hearing aid processing

Evidence

Consider, for example, the audiogram for damaged hearing given in Figure 2.19. Here, the average dBHL value for frequencies 250 Hz to 4 kHz would be {((10 + 5 + 5 + 15 + 60)/5) = 19 dBHL}, which indicates “no hearing handicap” (see Table 7.1), which is clearly not the case. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2360 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In contrast, it was found that CI users showed no difference in speech intelligibility between maskers with and without inherent envelope fluctuations. Here, these initial findings in CI users were extended to listeners with cochlear hearing loss and the results were compared with those from normal-hearing listeners at either equal sensation level or equal sound pressure level. The results from hearing-impaired listeners (and in normal-hearing listeners at high sound levels) are consistent with a relative reduction in low-frequency inherent noise fluctuations due to broader cochlear filtering. The reduced effect of inherent temporal fluctuations in noise, due to either current spread (in CI users) or broader cochlear filters (in hearing-impaired listeners), provides a new way to explain the loss of masking release experienced in CI users and hearing-impaired listeners when additional amplitude fluctuations are introduced in noise maskers. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2161 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Hearing loss varies independently across different frequency ranges — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 2660; Averaging hearing loss across frequencies can mask serious impairment — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2360; Wider peripheral tuning from hearing loss suppresses low-frequency fluctuation amplitude (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Averaging hearing loss across frequencies can mask serious impairment #corroborates (0.82) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2360
• Wider peripheral tuning from hearing loss suppresses low-frequency fluctuation amplitude #expands (0.78)
• Broader cochlear filtering reduces low-frequency noise fluctuations, explaining lost masking release #complicates (0.75) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 2161