Hearing-impaired listeners cannot perceive fine high-frequency pinna spectral details
Evidence
A likely explanation is that the fine high-frequency spectral details (present from 5 kHz and upwards) of natural pinna cues are at least partly imperceptible by people with hearing impairment, due to reduced frequency selectivity. Naylor and Weinrich ( 2011 ) described a hearing-aid configuration incorporating a method to create directional spectral cues with similar characteristics to pinna cues, but in a lower frequency region around 2–6 kHz, whereby they would be easier to perceive for hearing-impaired test subjects. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3052
Pinna cues are useful for localisation out of the horizontal plane, and for resolving front-back confusions. Previous attempts at providing hearing-aid users with natural pinna cues have only been partly successful (Jensen et al. 2013 ). A likely explanation is that the fine high-frequency spectral details (present from 5 kHz and upwards) of natural pinna cues are at least partly imperceptible by people with hearing impairment, due to reduced frequency selectivity. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3053
Categorization
- QUESTION: The proposed solution—transposing pinna cues to 2–6 kHz—depends on whether reduced frequency selectivity truly makes these fine details imperceptible, which the study presumably tests.
- corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3052; Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 3053