Spatial hearing capacities of soldiers with acoustic trauma are evaluated in ENT consultations with routine tests (i.e. tonal audiometry, voice audiometry). While the results conclude that soldiers with acoustic trauma have sufficient abilities to carry out professional missions, soldiers report recurring complaints of sound localization (spatial hearing), i.e. difficulties in identifying the position of sound sources in their environment. However, there is currently no objective test to identify and objectify these complaints of spatial hearing. The investigators have developed a new approach (SPHERE) based on virtual reality and 3D motion tracking, allowing us to evaluate and record the spatial hearing performance of subject with hearing deficit. This system allowed us to highlight localization deficits in three-dimensional space. This project explores and quantifies the spatial hearing impairments of soldiers with acoustic trauma. The quantification of the spatial hearing capacities will allow to define a specific rehabilitation strategy of spatial hearing deficits.
Study Type
OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment
46
Participants will be instructed to localize a sound emitted in their environment using a virtual reality setup (SPHEAR protocol).
Intelligibility threshold is the signal-to-noise ratio (in decibels) for which the subject can repeat 50% of the words heard in a dichotic listening.
The SSQ questionnaire is a clinical subjective scale that allows evaluating of hearing performances in daily life. The questionnaire is divided into 3 main items (A: speech; B: spatial hearing; C: other qualities of hearing) comprising questions with rating scores out of ten.
Hopital Edouard Herriot
Lyon, France
RECRUITINGCumulative error value "3d-D" measuring the spatial hearing performances
First, the pointing error will be computed for azimuth, elevation, and depth, in terms of constant error and variable error. Then, these separate dimension errors will be combined into a cumulative error "3d-D", taking into account absolute and variable error in one measure. 3d-D value corresponding to the spatial hearing deficit matching the distance between the 3D hand pointing position and the 3D sound source position. The 3dD performance of the Acoustic traumatised military group will be compared to that of the normal hearing group.
Time frame: at Day 1 during the inclusion visit. The test last 30 minutes.
Correlation between the score obtained in the SSQ and the 3dD auditory spatialization performance.
The behavioral (dependent) variables from the SSQ of the acoustic traumatized military will be analyzed using the linear regression method to examine the relationship between their 3dD auditory spatialization performance and their SSQ score
Time frame: at Day 1 during the inclusion visit.
Correlation between the score obtained in the Framatrix and the 3dD auditory spatialization performance.
The speech-in-noise performance (SNR) of the acoustic traumatized military will be analysed using the linear regression method to examine the relationship between their speech-in-noise performance (SNR) and their SSQ score
Time frame: at Day 1 during the inclusion visit.
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