The aim of the ETERNEL project will be to study the influence of the perception of a single sound timbre on the understanding of a complex sound scene in hearing-impaired people with hearing aids. This will be done by quantifying the inability to manage a complex sound scene as a function of the timbre of the sounds making it up. The more a sound interferes with understanding the complex sound scene, the more salient that sound is considered to be. In this way, the investigators can determine which timbre dimensions make sounds particularly salient for the hearing impaired.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NON_RANDOMIZED
Purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
75
The experiment consists of evaluating the sound level of n complex stimuli, then equalising them in loudness, in order to measure a loudness curve in function of timbre descriptors. The stimuli will then be listened to again in pairs. The task is there to compare the stimuli using a VAS to indicate how different the two sounds are.
The experiment consists in identifying the parameters of the sound timbre that most disturb the understanding of complex sound scenes, by asking the participants to identify sounds whose timbre has been modified.
Percentage of correct answers in melody comparison tasks in the hearing-impaired group compared with the normal-hearing group,
Time frame: 3-hours
Characterisation of the dissimilarity between pairs of stimuli measured by a continuous perceptual scale
Continuous perceptual scale ranging from very dissimilar to very similar
Time frame: 3-hours
Evaluation of the perceived loudness level of a set of stimuli, measured using scales of magnitude.
11-point Likert scale
Time frame: 3-hours
Comparison between the results of speech audiometry in noise, i.e number of words correctly repeated, with native settings versus settings minimising the discomfort of salient sounds for each participant with hearing loss.
the comparison will focus on the number of words correctly repeated on the 1st visit (with native settings) versus the last visit (with settings minimising the discomfort)
Time frame: up to 24 months
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The experiment will be identical to intervention 2. This time, the modification of the stimulus timbres will focus on the most problematic dimensional modifications, i.e. those where the difference between normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners is greatest. We will then modify the signal processing parameters of the hearing aid simulator (for example, the size of the averaging window or the gain balance of the filters), to observe their impact on the salience of certain stimuli.