Perceptual deficits correlate poorly with audiogram thresholds and vary widely

Evidence

Although hearing aids do not directly address many of the supra-threshold deficits experienced by listeners with hearing loss, technologies available in hearing aids may be able to help with these problems, if they were adequately diagnosed. For example, not all listeners with hearing loss experience the same amount of loudness recruitment, and such information might help an audiologist select among different compression algorithms available. As we have observed throughout the review of psychoacoustic literature, one cannot assume that any given listener has a deficit in a particular perceptual ability without testing it directly. There is a poor correlation with detection thresholds (i.e., the audiogram), and there is wide variability in the type and degree of perceptual deficits across listeners with sensorineural hearing loss. — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1716

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• SEED: Article angle: ‘The audiogram is not enough’ — why standard hearing tests miss the perceptual deficits that actually hurt communication, and what a deficit-focused diagnostic battery might look like.

Related

• The audiogram fails as a robust indicator of perceptual deafness deficits (similarity 0.91)
• The audiogram measures only detection and conceals varied sensorineural perceptual deficits. (similarity 0.89)
• The audiogram measures only sound detection, not other auditory perceptions (similarity 0.89)
• Listeners with hearing loss form a heterogeneous perceptual group, not a single category (similarity 0.87)
• The audiogram cannot predict which hearing-impaired listeners have temporal processing deficits (similarity 0.87)
• The audiogram does not predict pitch perception deficits in hearing loss (similarity 0.87)
• Audiograms and frequency selectivity fail to predict pitch perception deficits (similarity 0.86)
• Hearing thresholds add almost no predictive power beyond age and encoding measures (similarity 0.85)
• Standard audiological tests miss most of the perceptual abilities humans need to communicate (similarity 0.85)
• The audiogram only captures detection thresholds and fails to predict real-world speech perception (similarity 0.84)
• Hearing loss correlates weakly with precedence-effect echo thresholds. (similarity 0.84)
• Brainstem threshold responses cannot predict a patient’s functional hearing ability. (similarity 0.84)
• Hearing loss is a sensory-representation deficit, not merely an acoustic one. (similarity 0.84)
• Amplification only compensates for elevated thresholds, not other perceptual deficits from hearing loss. (similarity 0.83)
• Successful communication requires multiple distinct auditory perception abilities beyond simple detection. (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• The audiogram does not predict pitch perception deficits in hearing loss #corroborates (0.92) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1330