Byrne D, Dillon H
Ear Hear. 1986 Aug;7(4):257-65. doi: 10.1097/00003446-198608000-00007.
A new procedure is presented for selecting the gain and frequency response of a hearing aid from pure-tone thresholds. This was developed from research which showed that a previous procedure did not meet its aim of amplifying all frequency bands of speech to equal loudness but that frequency responses which did so were considerably more effective. Measurements of 30 sensorineurally hearing-impaired ears (27 subjects), together with data from other studies, were analyzed to determine the best formula for predicting the optimal frequency response, for each individual, from the audiogram. The analysis indicated that a flat audiogram would require a rising frequency response characteristic of about 8 dB/octave up to 1.25 kHz and thereafter a falling characteristic of about 2 dB/octave. Variations in audiogram slope required about one-third as much variation in response slope. Three frequency average (3FA) gain was calculated to equal the 3FA gain of the previous procedure. Forty-four subjects (67 aided ears) fitted by the new procedure were evaluated by paired comparison judgments of the intelligibility and pleasantness of speech. The prescribed frequency response was seldom inferior to, and usually better than, any of several variations having more, or less, low and/or high-frequency amplification. On the average, used gain was approximately equal to prescribed gain. It is concluded that the new formula should prescribe a near optimal frequency response with few exceptions.
本文提出了一种根据纯音阈值选择助听器增益和频率响应的新方法。该方法是基于一项研究发展而来，该研究表明，先前的方法未能实现将语音的所有频段放大到相同响度的目标，而能实现此目标的频率响应则更为有效。对30例感音神经性听力受损耳朵（27名受试者）的测量数据以及其他研究的数据进行了分析，以确定根据听力图为每个个体预测最佳频率响应的最佳公式。分析表明，平坦的听力图需要在高达1.25kHz的频率范围内具有约8dB/倍频程的上升频率响应特性，此后具有约2dB/倍频程的下降特性。听力图斜率的变化需要响应斜率约三分之一的变化。计算出的三频率平均（3FA）增益与先前方法的3FA增益相等。通过对语音清晰度和愉悦度的配对比较判断，对采用新方法适配的44名受试者（67只助听耳）进行了评估。规定的频率响应很少比具有或多或少低频和/或高频放大的几种变化中的任何一种差，通常还更好。平均而言，使用的增益大约等于规定的增益。得出的结论是，新公式应能规定出几乎最佳的频率响应，仅有少数例外情况。
