Hearing aid users often report that some everyday sounds are abnormally intrusive or salient. This issue may stem from distorted coding of sound features due to peripheral impairments and/or hearing aid processing. This study investigates whether aided hearing-impaired (aHI) listeners experience (1) abnormal loudness processing and (2) distorted timbre perception, both of which may contribute to this problem....
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Audiologists should be aware that hearing aid amplification alone does not fully correct perceptual distortions such as excessive loudness growth or altered timbre; these findings support the need to consider suprathreshold coding deficits when counseling patients about residual listening difficulties with amplification.
This study challenges the assumption that fitting hearing aids to audiometric thresholds is sufficient, highlighting that peripheral coding deficits cause persistent perceptual distortions that amplification cannot fully compensate for.
- 01Aided hearing-impaired listeners still experience excessive loudness growth and altered timbre perception.
- 02Psychophysical evidence points to peripheral (inner ear) coding deficits as the underlying cause.
- 03Distortions go beyond threshold elevation and persist even with appropriate amplification.
- 04Findings suggest current hearing aid processing may not address suprathreshold perceptual distortions.
- 05Published in Trends in Hearing, a peer-reviewed open-access audiology journal.
Aided hearing-impaired listeners exhibit excessive loudness growth compared to normal-hearing listeners.
studysupportedAltered timbre representation in hearing-impaired listeners is linked to peripheral coding deficits.
studypartially supportedPerceptual distortions in aided listeners are not fully resolved by hearing aid amplification.
studysupported- PMID
- 42664058
- DOI
- 10.1177/23312165261477779.
- Journal
- Trends in Hearing
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Adults with hearing impairment using hearing aids compared to normal-hearing controls
- Intervention
- Psychophysical assessment of loudness growth and timbre perception in aided hearing-impaired listeners
- Comparator
- Normal-hearing listeners
Primary outcomes
Loudness growth functions in aided hearing-impaired vs. normal-hearing listeners; Timbre representation accuracy in hearing-impaired listeners; Psychophysical evidence of peripheral coding deficits