Evaluation of nonlinear frequency compression: clinical outcomes.
This study evaluated prototype multichannel nonlinear frequency compression (NFC) signal processing on listeners with high-frequency hearing loss. This signal processor applies NFC above a cut-off frequency. The participants were hearing-impaired adults (13) and children (11) with sloping, high-frequency hearing loss. Multiple outcome measures were repeated using a modified withdrawal design. These included speech sound detection, speech recognition, and self-reported preference measures. Group level results provide evidence of significant improvement of consonant and plural recognition when NFC was enabled. Vowel recognition did not change significantly. Analysis of individual results allowed for exploration of individual factors contributing to benefit received from NFC processing. Findings suggest that NFC processing can improve high frequency speech detection and speech recognition ability for adult and child listeners. Variability in individual outcomes related to factors such as degree and configuration of hearing loss, age of participant, and type of outcome measure.
Glista
Danielle
D
National Centre for Audiology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario, Canada. daglista@nca.uwo.ca
Scollie
Susan
S
Bagatto
Marlene
M
Seewald
Richard
R
Parsa
Vijay
V
Johnson
Andrew
A
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D002648:Child; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006316:Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D057240:Patient Preference; D046709:Pattern Recognition, Physiological; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013067:Speech Perception; D016896:Treatment Outcome