Cortical and Subjective Measures of Individual Noise Tolerance Predict Hearing Outcomes with Varying Noise Reduction Strength

• DOI: 10.3390/app14166892
• Publication Date: 2024-08-06T19:24:16Z
• Authors: Subong Kim; Susan Arzac; Natalie Dokic; Jenn Donnelly; Nicole Genser; Kristen Nortwich; Alexis Rooney
• Keywords: Communication noise

Noise reduction (NR) algorithms are employed in nearly all commercially available hearing aids to attenuate background noise. However, NR processing also involves undesirable speech distortions, leading variability outcomes among individuals with different noise tolerance. Leveraging 30 participants normal engaged speech-in-noise tasks, the present study examined whether cortical measure of neural signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)—the amplitude auditory evoked responses target onset and onset—could predict individual varying strength, thus serving as a reliable indicator In addition, we measured subjective ratings tolerance see if these measures could capture perspectives on Results indicated significant correlation between SNR that intensified increasing strength processing. While were not correlated SNR, noise-tolerance stronger account for additional variance regression model, although effect was limited. Our findings underscore importance accurately assessing an individual’s characteristics predicting perceptual benefits from various methods suggest advantage incorporating both relevant methodologies.