Meuret Sylvia, Berger Thomas, Fuchs Michael, Ludwig Alexandra Annemarie
Sektion Phoniatrie und Audiologie, Klinik und Poliklinik für Hals-, Nasen- und Ohrenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Leipzig, Germany.
Klinik und Poliklinik für Hals-, Nasen- und Ohrenheilkunde, Universitätsklinikum Leipzig AöR, Leipzig, Germany.
Laryngorhinootologie. 2021 Jan;100(1):38-45. doi: 10.1055/a-1177-1371. Epub 2020 Jun 5.
Auditory localisation is part of central auditory processing. The study examined the impact of hearing aids on the auditory localisation ability of non-linguistic stimuli in hearing impaired schoolchildren.
Above threshold acoustic signals were presented to 20 children (7-17 years) in a free field condition with 45 loudspeakers placed on a semicircular array. All participants had a bilaterally symmetric moderate sensorineural hearing loss (WHO grade 2) and used behind the ear style (BTE) hearing aids with conventional earmolds. The children had to indicate the position of the signal by a laser pointer. Both high- and low-frequency noise bursts were employed in the tests to separately address spatial auditory processing based on interaural time differences and interaural intensity differences. The examination was performed with and without BTE hearing aids.
There was no significant difference between results in the aided and the unaided condition: neither for the different frequency bands nor for the signal positions. The auditory localisation of the hearing impaired children was reduced by 3°-4° for frontal and 5°-11° for lateral positions compared to normal-hearing children. There was no age-relation.
In our experimental setting, BTE hearing aids could not compensate the impaired auditory localisation ability of children with sensorineural hearing loss.
听觉定位是中枢听觉处理的一部分。本研究探讨了助听器对听力受损学童非语言刺激听觉定位能力的影响。
在自由声场条件下，向20名7至17岁儿童呈现高于阈值的声学信号，45个扬声器呈半圆形排列。所有参与者均患有双侧对称的中度感音神经性听力损失（世界卫生组织2级），并使用耳背式（BTE）助听器及传统耳模。儿童必须用激光笔指示信号位置。测试中采用高频和低频噪声脉冲，分别基于双耳时间差和双耳强度差来处理空间听觉。测试在佩戴和不佩戴BTE助听器的情况下进行。
佩戴助听器和未佩戴助听器的测试结果之间无显著差异：无论是不同频段还是信号位置。与听力正常的儿童相比，听力受损儿童的听觉定位在正面位置降低了3°-4°，侧面位置降低了5°-11°。且与年龄无关。
在我们的实验环境中，BTE助听器无法补偿感音神经性听力损失儿童受损的听觉定位能力。
