The performance of an automatic acoustic-based program classifier compared to hearing aid users’ manual selection of listening programs

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Validating a Method to Assess Lipreading, Audiovisual Gain, and Integration During Speech Reception With Cochlear-Implanted and Normal-Hearing Subjects Using a Talking Head.

Objectives: Watching a talker's mouth is beneficial for speech reception (SR) in many communication settings, especially in noise and when hearing is impaired. Measures for audiovisual (AV) SR can be valuable in the framework of diagnosing or treating hearing disorders. This study addresses the lack of standardized methods in many languages for assessing lipreading, AV gain, and integration. A new method is validated that supplements a German speech audiometric test with visualizations of the synthetic articulation of an avatar that was used, for it is feasible to lip-sync auditory speech in a highly standardized way. Three hypotheses were formed according to the literature on AV SR that used live or filmed talkers. It was tested whether respective effects could be reproduced with synthetic articulation: (1) cochlear implant (CI) users have a higher visual-only SR than normal-hearing (NH) individuals, and younger individuals obtain higher lipreading scores than older persons. (2) Both CI and NH gain from presenting AV over unimodal (auditory or visual) sentences in noise. (3) Both CI and NH listeners efficiently integrate complementary auditory and visual speech features. Design: In a controlled, cross-sectional study with 14 experienced CI users (mean age 47.4) and 14 NH individuals (mean age 46.3, similar broad age distribution), lipreading, AV gain, and integration of a German matrix sentence test were assessed. Visual speech stimuli were synthesized by the articulation of the Talking Head system "MASSY" (Modular Audiovisual Speech Synthesizer), which displayed standardized articulation with respect to the visibility of German phones. Results: In line with the hypotheses and previous literature, CI users had a higher mean visual-only SR than NH individuals (CI, 38%; NH, 12%; p

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Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Tinnitus and Tinnitus-Related Handicap in a College-Aged Population.

Objective: Tinnitus is a common otological condition that affects almost 10% of US adults. Research suggests that college students are vulnerable to tinnitus and hearing loss as they are exposed to traumatic levels of noise on a regular basis. Tinnitus and its influence in daily living continue to be underappreciated in the college-aged population. Therefore, the objective for the present study was to analyze prevalence and associated risk factors of tinnitus and tinnitus-related handicap in a sample of college-aged students. Design: A survey was administered to 678 students aged 18-30 years in a cross-section of randomly selected university classes. The survey was adopted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010). It inquired about demographic details, medical and audiological history, routine noise exposure, smoking, sound level tolerance, tinnitus, and tinnitus-related handicap in daily living. Tinnitus-related handicap was assessed by the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI). Participants were divided into four groups: chronic tinnitus (bothersome tinnitus for >1 year), acute tinnitus (bothersome tinnitus for =18). A multinomial regression analysis revealed that individuals with high noise exposure, high sound level tolerance score, recurring ear infections, and self-reported hearing loss had high odds of chronic tinnitus. Females showed higher prevalence of acute tinnitus than males. Individuals with European American ethnicity and smoking history showed high odds of reporting subacute tinnitus. Almost 10% of the subjects reported that they were music students. The prevalence of chronic, acute, and subacute tinnitus was 11.3%, 22.5%, and 32.4%, respectively, for musicians, which was significantly higher than that for nonmusicians. Music exposure, firearm noise exposure, and occupational noise exposure were significantly correlated with tinnitus. Temporal characteristics of tinnitus, self-reported tinnitus loudness, and sound level tolerance were identified as major predictors for the overall THI score. Conclusions: Despite the reluctance to complain about tinnitus, a substantial portion of college-aged individuals reported tinnitus experience and its adverse influence in daily living. It was concluded that environmental and health-related factors can trigger tinnitus perception, while self-reported psychoacoustic descriptors of tinnitus may explain perceived tinnitus-related handicap in daily living by college-aged individuals. Future research is required to explore effects of tinnitus on educational achievements, social interaction, and vocational aspects of college students. Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Validating a Method to Assess Lipreading, Audiovisual Gain, and Integration During Speech Reception With Cochlear-Implanted and Normal-Hearing Subjects Using a Talking Head.

Objectives: Watching a talker's mouth is beneficial for speech reception (SR) in many communication settings, especially in noise and when hearing is impaired. Measures for audiovisual (AV) SR can be valuable in the framework of diagnosing or treating hearing disorders. This study addresses the lack of standardized methods in many languages for assessing lipreading, AV gain, and integration. A new method is validated that supplements a German speech audiometric test with visualizations of the synthetic articulation of an avatar that was used, for it is feasible to lip-sync auditory speech in a highly standardized way. Three hypotheses were formed according to the literature on AV SR that used live or filmed talkers. It was tested whether respective effects could be reproduced with synthetic articulation: (1) cochlear implant (CI) users have a higher visual-only SR than normal-hearing (NH) individuals, and younger individuals obtain higher lipreading scores than older persons. (2) Both CI and NH gain from presenting AV over unimodal (auditory or visual) sentences in noise. (3) Both CI and NH listeners efficiently integrate complementary auditory and visual speech features. Design: In a controlled, cross-sectional study with 14 experienced CI users (mean age 47.4) and 14 NH individuals (mean age 46.3, similar broad age distribution), lipreading, AV gain, and integration of a German matrix sentence test were assessed. Visual speech stimuli were synthesized by the articulation of the Talking Head system "MASSY" (Modular Audiovisual Speech Synthesizer), which displayed standardized articulation with respect to the visibility of German phones. Results: In line with the hypotheses and previous literature, CI users had a higher mean visual-only SR than NH individuals (CI, 38%; NH, 12%; p

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Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Tinnitus and Tinnitus-Related Handicap in a College-Aged Population.

Objective: Tinnitus is a common otological condition that affects almost 10% of US adults. Research suggests that college students are vulnerable to tinnitus and hearing loss as they are exposed to traumatic levels of noise on a regular basis. Tinnitus and its influence in daily living continue to be underappreciated in the college-aged population. Therefore, the objective for the present study was to analyze prevalence and associated risk factors of tinnitus and tinnitus-related handicap in a sample of college-aged students. Design: A survey was administered to 678 students aged 18-30 years in a cross-section of randomly selected university classes. The survey was adopted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010). It inquired about demographic details, medical and audiological history, routine noise exposure, smoking, sound level tolerance, tinnitus, and tinnitus-related handicap in daily living. Tinnitus-related handicap was assessed by the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI). Participants were divided into four groups: chronic tinnitus (bothersome tinnitus for >1 year), acute tinnitus (bothersome tinnitus for =18). A multinomial regression analysis revealed that individuals with high noise exposure, high sound level tolerance score, recurring ear infections, and self-reported hearing loss had high odds of chronic tinnitus. Females showed higher prevalence of acute tinnitus than males. Individuals with European American ethnicity and smoking history showed high odds of reporting subacute tinnitus. Almost 10% of the subjects reported that they were music students. The prevalence of chronic, acute, and subacute tinnitus was 11.3%, 22.5%, and 32.4%, respectively, for musicians, which was significantly higher than that for nonmusicians. Music exposure, firearm noise exposure, and occupational noise exposure were significantly correlated with tinnitus. Temporal characteristics of tinnitus, self-reported tinnitus loudness, and sound level tolerance were identified as major predictors for the overall THI score. Conclusions: Despite the reluctance to complain about tinnitus, a substantial portion of college-aged individuals reported tinnitus experience and its adverse influence in daily living. It was concluded that environmental and health-related factors can trigger tinnitus perception, while self-reported psychoacoustic descriptors of tinnitus may explain perceived tinnitus-related handicap in daily living by college-aged individuals. Future research is required to explore effects of tinnitus on educational achievements, social interaction, and vocational aspects of college students. Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Validating a Method to Assess Lipreading, Audiovisual Gain, and Integration During Speech Reception With Cochlear-Implanted and Normal-Hearing Subjects Using a Talking Head.

Objectives: Watching a talker's mouth is beneficial for speech reception (SR) in many communication settings, especially in noise and when hearing is impaired. Measures for audiovisual (AV) SR can be valuable in the framework of diagnosing or treating hearing disorders. This study addresses the lack of standardized methods in many languages for assessing lipreading, AV gain, and integration. A new method is validated that supplements a German speech audiometric test with visualizations of the synthetic articulation of an avatar that was used, for it is feasible to lip-sync auditory speech in a highly standardized way. Three hypotheses were formed according to the literature on AV SR that used live or filmed talkers. It was tested whether respective effects could be reproduced with synthetic articulation: (1) cochlear implant (CI) users have a higher visual-only SR than normal-hearing (NH) individuals, and younger individuals obtain higher lipreading scores than older persons. (2) Both CI and NH gain from presenting AV over unimodal (auditory or visual) sentences in noise. (3) Both CI and NH listeners efficiently integrate complementary auditory and visual speech features. Design: In a controlled, cross-sectional study with 14 experienced CI users (mean age 47.4) and 14 NH individuals (mean age 46.3, similar broad age distribution), lipreading, AV gain, and integration of a German matrix sentence test were assessed. Visual speech stimuli were synthesized by the articulation of the Talking Head system "MASSY" (Modular Audiovisual Speech Synthesizer), which displayed standardized articulation with respect to the visibility of German phones. Results: In line with the hypotheses and previous literature, CI users had a higher mean visual-only SR than NH individuals (CI, 38%; NH, 12%; p

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Prevalence of and Risk Factors for Tinnitus and Tinnitus-Related Handicap in a College-Aged Population.

Objective: Tinnitus is a common otological condition that affects almost 10% of US adults. Research suggests that college students are vulnerable to tinnitus and hearing loss as they are exposed to traumatic levels of noise on a regular basis. Tinnitus and its influence in daily living continue to be underappreciated in the college-aged population. Therefore, the objective for the present study was to analyze prevalence and associated risk factors of tinnitus and tinnitus-related handicap in a sample of college-aged students. Design: A survey was administered to 678 students aged 18-30 years in a cross-section of randomly selected university classes. The survey was adopted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2010). It inquired about demographic details, medical and audiological history, routine noise exposure, smoking, sound level tolerance, tinnitus, and tinnitus-related handicap in daily living. Tinnitus-related handicap was assessed by the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI). Participants were divided into four groups: chronic tinnitus (bothersome tinnitus for >1 year), acute tinnitus (bothersome tinnitus for =18). A multinomial regression analysis revealed that individuals with high noise exposure, high sound level tolerance score, recurring ear infections, and self-reported hearing loss had high odds of chronic tinnitus. Females showed higher prevalence of acute tinnitus than males. Individuals with European American ethnicity and smoking history showed high odds of reporting subacute tinnitus. Almost 10% of the subjects reported that they were music students. The prevalence of chronic, acute, and subacute tinnitus was 11.3%, 22.5%, and 32.4%, respectively, for musicians, which was significantly higher than that for nonmusicians. Music exposure, firearm noise exposure, and occupational noise exposure were significantly correlated with tinnitus. Temporal characteristics of tinnitus, self-reported tinnitus loudness, and sound level tolerance were identified as major predictors for the overall THI score. Conclusions: Despite the reluctance to complain about tinnitus, a substantial portion of college-aged individuals reported tinnitus experience and its adverse influence in daily living. It was concluded that environmental and health-related factors can trigger tinnitus perception, while self-reported psychoacoustic descriptors of tinnitus may explain perceived tinnitus-related handicap in daily living by college-aged individuals. Future research is required to explore effects of tinnitus on educational achievements, social interaction, and vocational aspects of college students. Copyright (C) 2017 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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