Melanie Lough

• The University of Manchester

Objective: The upper limit of sensitivity to binaural temporal fine structure (TFS) is around 1400 Hz. Higher values have been reported when keeping interaural phase differences fixed and varying the frequency adaptively, as in the adaptive-frequency TFS test [TFS-AF, Füllgrabe et al., Int J Audiol, 56, 926-935]. The probability of TFS-AF threshol...

Objective: Explore the impact of Ida's "My Hearing Explained" (MHE) tool on audiologists' language and patients' understanding/interpretation of hearing test results. Design: Audiologists were video-recorded in two sequential conditions: 1) giving standard audiogram explanations to 13 patients and, 2) following discretionary self-training, givin...

Objectives The study compared the utility of two approaches for collecting real-world listening experiences to predict hearing-aid preference: a retrospective questionnaire (Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale [SSQ]) and in-situ Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA). The rationale being that each approach likely provides different and y...

Purpose Noise reduction technologies in hearing aids provide benefits under controlled conditions. However, differences in their real-life effectiveness are not established. We propose that a deep neural network (DNN)–based noise reduction system trained on naturalistic sound environments will provide different real-life benefits compared to tradit...

Remote microphones (RMs) enable clearer reception of speech than would be normally achievable when relying on the acoustic sound field at the listener's ear (Hawkins, J Sp Hear Disord 49, 409-418, 1984). They are used in a wide range of environments, with one example being for children in educational settings. The international standards defining t...

Purpose Perceived sound quality was variously compared between either no aiding or aiding with three models of hearing aid that varied the microphone position around the pinna, depth of the receiver in the auditory meatus, degree of meatal occlusion, and processing sophistication. The hearing aids were modern designs and commercially available at t...

Objectives: The threshold equalizing noise (TEN(HL)) is a clinically administered test to detect cochlear "dead regions" (i.e., regions of loss of inner hair cell [IHC] connectivity), using a "pass/fail" criterion based on the degree of elevation of a masked threshold in a tone-detection task. With sensorineural hearing loss, some elevation of the...

Audiometric testing in research and in clinical settings rarely considers frequencies above 8 kHz. However, the sensitivity of young healthy ears extends to 20 kHz, and there is increasing evidence that testing in the extended high-frequency (EHF) region, above 8 kHz, might provide valuable additional information. Basal (EHF) cochlear regions are e...

Consumer-grade headphones for children are frequently packaged or marketed with labels claiming incorporation of an output-level-limiting function. Six pairs of headphones, sold separately from devices with audio interfaces, were selected either from online recommendations or from “best rated” with a large online retailer, the opinions being expres...

Pure-tone threshold audiometry is currently the standard test of hearing. However, in everyday life, we are more concerned with listening to speech of moderate loudness and, specifically, listening to a particular talker against a background of other talkers. FreeHear delivers strings of three spoken digits (0–9, not 7) against a background babble...