fNIRs, Listening Effort, and Speech Intelligibility

Functional Near-infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) as a Measure of Listening Effort and Speech Intelligibility in Adults With Hearing Loss

The purpose of the current study is to measure oxygenation in the PFC using fNIRS in a sample of older adults with hearing loss. Adults with hearing loss will be asked to repeat the final word from low-context sentences in noise at two SNRs; a hard SNR (individually-measured SNR-50), and an easy SNR (SNR-50 + 10 dB) both without and with hearing aids set to a directional mode. The procedure will be a within-subject repeated measures. Stimuli will be randomized.

See above.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Adults (18-99 years) with ≥3 months hearing aid experience
• binaural, symmetric, sensorineural N2 (mild) to N6 (severe) hearing loss
• fluent in English

Exclusion Criteria:

• children/teenagers
• normal hearing or hearing loss exceeding N6 (severe) by 10 dB