Subjective Evaluation of a Sound Processing Method for Hearing Aids on Auditory Distance Perception

NCT ID: NCT03512951

Last Updated: 2018-12-20

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

30 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2018-10-09

Study Completion Date

2018-11-27

Brief Summary

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Within the course of this study, a signal processing feature has been developed at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in collaboration with Sonova AG, in order to enhance the listening experience with remote microphone systems. In particular, the developed feature is supposed to improve the so-called audio-visual fusion, i.e. the fact to perceive the sound as coming from the physical location of the source. One of the main goals of the present study is to evaluate the extent to which this feature reaches that objective.

Detailed Description

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Conditions

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Hearing Disorders Hearing Loss, Sensorineural

Keywords

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Hearing aids Remote microphone systems Roger technology Sound externalization Auditory distance estimation

Study Design

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Allocation Method

NON_RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Primary Study Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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Normal hearing

A control group including ten normal-hearing participants. These participants are recruited because they can be considered as a reference when compared to hearing-impaired patients. They usually provide homogeneous results that are expected to be significantly different than those obtained with hearing-impaired patients. In this study, normal-hearing participants are expected to provide better and more consistent performance of auditory distance estimation.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Digital signal processing algorithms

Intervention Type OTHER

The intervention consists in applying five processing on some recorded speech signals. In particular, the processing performed by one specific algorithm is compared against the four other. The applied processing is supposed to restore sound externalization (expected audio-visual fusion).

10 experienced hearing impaired

A group of ten (expected sample size) severe-to-profound hearing-impaired patients who have a past and/or present experience of more than 6 months with remote microphone systems. These patients are expected to be aware of the drawbacks of the current remote microphone technology with respect to sound localization, auditory distance estimation, and audio-visual fusion.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Digital signal processing algorithms

Intervention Type OTHER

The intervention consists in applying five processing on some recorded speech signals. In particular, the processing performed by one specific algorithm is compared against the four other. The applied processing is supposed to restore sound externalization (expected audio-visual fusion).

10 naive hearing impaired

A group of ten severe-to-profound hearing-impaired patients with no past or current experience with remote microphone systems. They are referred to as naïve patients. These patients must have similar profiles to the patients in the experienced group as regards the degree of hearing loss, origin of hearing loss (congenital, pre- or post-lingual disability), age, gender, and hearing aid technology. They will be selected and recruited on the basis of the patients included in experienced group

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Digital signal processing algorithms

Intervention Type OTHER

The intervention consists in applying five processing on some recorded speech signals. In particular, the processing performed by one specific algorithm is compared against the four other. The applied processing is supposed to restore sound externalization (expected audio-visual fusion).

Interventions

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Digital signal processing algorithms

The intervention consists in applying five processing on some recorded speech signals. In particular, the processing performed by one specific algorithm is compared against the four other. The applied processing is supposed to restore sound externalization (expected audio-visual fusion).

Intervention Type OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Willing and able to give written informed consent as documented by signature,
* French-native adult speakers,
* (Preferably) younger than 60 y.o.

For all normal-hearing participants:

\- Hearing thresholds lower or equal to 20 dB on both ears, as ensured by a pure-tone audiometry (125 Hz to 8 kHz) conducted at the beginning of the session.

For all hearing-impaired patients:

* Patients of Mr. Philippe Estoppey, private audiologist settled in Lausanne,
* User of bilateral BTE Phonak hearing aids, commercialized after July 2012, with fittings that did not change over the last three months,
* Presenting a severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss,
* Presenting a symmetrical hearing loss (no bilateral hearing threshold that differ by more than 20 dB at any audiometric frequency (125 Hz - 4 kHz)).

For HI patients experienced with remote microphone systems:

\- Past or present users of FM and/or Roger devices for more than six months.

For other HI patients:

\- No past or present experience with FM and/or Roger devices for more than one month.

Exclusion Criteria

* Collaborator of the laboratory (LTS2) or student attending the courses of audio and acoustics given by the laboratory staff (EE-348 Electroacoustics, EE-548 Audio Engineering),
* History of chronic or terminal illness, psychiatric disturbance, senile dementia, or cognitive impairment,
* History of strong tinnitus and/or hyperacusis,
* Strong visual impairment after correction with glasses or not,
* History of epilepsy or other reactions associated with the proximity to a screen,
* Motor disability that would disturb their presence at EPFL.
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

60 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Gilles Courtois

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Vincent Grimaldi

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Eleftheria Georganti

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Peter Derleth

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

David Sooprayen

UNKNOWN

Sponsor Role collaborator

Sonova AG

INDUSTRY

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Locations

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Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Lausanne, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland

Site Status

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Lausanne, , Switzerland

Site Status

Countries

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Switzerland

References

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Courtois G, Grimaldi V, Lissek H, Estoppey P, Georganti E. Perception of Auditory Distance in Normal-Hearing and Moderate-to-Profound Hearing-Impaired Listeners. Trends Hear. 2019 Jan-Dec;23:2331216519887615. doi: 10.1177/2331216519887615.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 31774032 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

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ID 2018-00709

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id