Compression and amplification algorithms in hearing aids impair the selectivity of neural responses to speech

Armstrong, Alex G.; Lam, Clk; Sabesan, Shievanie; Lesica, Nicholas A.

doi:10.1038/s41551-021-00707-y

Cited by 14 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…These studies suggest that whilst mild-gain hearing aids might potentially reduce the hearing-in-noise handicap of individuals with normal hearing, these technologies remain suboptimal for most of them. Another possible explanation for the low uptake of such technologies might be related to the effects of compression and amplification algorithms—a neurophysiological study conducted in hearing-impaired gerbils showed that although these algorithms help improve sound perception, they fail to restore the selectivity of neural responses to different speech sounds ( Armstrong et al, 2022 ).…”

Section: Intervention Strategies For Hidden Hearing Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

The hunt for hidden hearing loss in humans: From preclinical studies to effective interventions

2022

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Many individuals experience hearing problems that are hidden under a normal audiogram. This not only impacts on individual sufferers, but also on clinicians who can offer little in the way of support. Animal studies using invasive methodologies have developed solid evidence for a range of pathologies underlying this hidden hearing loss (HHL), including cochlear synaptopathy, auditory nerve demyelination, elevated central gain, and neural mal-adaptation. Despite progress in pre-clinical models, evidence supporting the existence of HHL in humans remains inconclusive, and clinicians lack any non-invasive biomarkers sensitive to HHL, as well as a standardized protocol to manage hearing problems in the absence of elevated hearing thresholds. Here, we review animal models of HHL as well as the ongoing research for tools with which to diagnose and manage hearing difficulties associated with HHL. We also discuss new research opportunities facilitated by recent methodological tools that may overcome a series of barriers that have hampered meaningful progress in diagnosing and treating of HHL.

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Section: Intervention Strategies For Hidden Hearing Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

The hunt for hidden hearing loss in humans: From preclinical studies to effective interventions

2022

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“…The frequency response of these speakers measured at the entrance of the ear canal was flat (  5 dB) between 0.2 and 8 kHz. Two craniotomies were made along with incisions in the dura mater, and a 256-channel multielectrode array was inserted into the central nucleus of the IC in each hemisphere 16 . The arrays were custom-designed to maximize coverage of the portion of the gerbil IC that is sensitive to the frequencies that are present in speech.…”

Section: Preparation For Large-scale Ic Recordingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distorted neural signal dynamics create hypersensitivity to background noise after hearing loss

Sabesan

Fragner²,

Lesica

2022

Preprint

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Listeners with hearing loss often struggle to understand speech in noise, even with a hearing aid. To better understand the auditory processing deficits that underlie this problem, we made large-scale brain recordings from gerbils, a common animal model for human hearing, while presenting a large database of speech and noise sounds. We first used manifold learning to identify the neural subspace in which speech is encoded and found that it is low-dimensional and that the dynamics within it are profoundly distorted by hearing loss. We then trained a deep neural network (DNN) to replicate the neural coding of speech with and without hearing loss and analyzed the underlying network dynamics. We found that hearing loss primarily impacts spectral processing, creating nonlinear distortions in cross-frequency interactions that result in a hypersensitivity to background noise that persists even after amplification with a hearing aid. Our results identify a new focus for efforts to design improved hearing aids and establish a new standard for the modeling of central brain structures using DNNs.

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“…However, for high-intensity sounds in background noise, the aids often fail to restore the perception of speech (Armstrong et al. 2022 ). Therefore, only a small fraction (10–20%) of older people with significant impairment use a hearing aid (McCormack and Fortnum 2013 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Network pharmacology and experimental evidence reveal the protective mechanism of Yi-Qi Cong-Ming decoction on age-related hearing loss

Yang

Yan

et al. 2022

Pharmaceutical Biology

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Context Yi-Qi Cong-Ming (YQCM) decoction has been widely used to prevent age-related hearing loss (ARHL), the most prevalent neurodegenerative disease in the elderly. Objective To explore the mechanism of YQCM decoction in the treatment of ARHL. Materials and methods The chemical constituents of YQCM were screened from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systems Pharmacology Database. Potential targets of YQCM against ARHL were predicted by DrugBank, GeneCards, and OMIM database. Protein-protein network and enrichment analysis were used for exploring possible molecular mechanisms. Molecular docking and an in vitro model of ARHL by exposing auditory cells with 100 μM H 2 O 2 for 3 h were applied. Cell viability and mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨM) were detected by CCK-8 and high-content analysis. γH2AX and cleaved caspase-3 were detected by Western blot. Results The main compounds have good affinities with hub targets, especially AKT1, PTGS2, and CASP3. GO and KEGG analysis showed that the main biological process and key targets were related to negative regulation of the apoptotic process. H 2 O 2 treatment could reduce the cell viability by 68% and impaired ΔΨM, while 90 μg/mL YQCM pre-treatment could restore the cell viability by 97.45% and increase ΔΨM (2-fold higher). YQCM pre-treatment also reduced γH2AX and cleaved caspase-3 protein levels. Conclusions Our study suggested that YQCM prevents ARHL by modulating the apoptosis process in auditory hair cells. Moreover, this study proved that bioinformatics analysis combined with molecular docking and cell model is a promising method to explore other possible pharmacological interventions of ARHL.

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Compression and amplification algorithms in hearing aids impair the selectivity of neural responses to speech

Cited by 14 publications

References 65 publications

The hunt for hidden hearing loss in humans: From preclinical studies to effective interventions

The hunt for hidden hearing loss in humans: From preclinical studies to effective interventions

Distorted neural signal dynamics create hypersensitivity to background noise after hearing loss

Network pharmacology and experimental evidence reveal the protective mechanism of Yi-Qi Cong-Ming decoction on age-related hearing loss

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