Sound Perception Study of Hearing-impaired People With Hearing Aids

ÉTude de la pERception soNorE de Personnes maLentendantes équipées d'Aides Auditives

The aim of the ETERNEL project will be to study the influence of the perception of a single sound timbre on the understanding of a complex sound scene in hearing-impaired people with hearing aids. This will be done by quantifying the inability to manage a complex sound scene as a function of the timbre of the sounds making it up. The more a sound interferes with understanding the complex sound scene, the more salient that sound is considered to be. In this way, the investigators can determine which timbre dimensions make sounds particularly salient for the hearing impaired.

Inclusion Criteria:

For all participants:

• Age between 60 and 75
• Native French speaker
• Have given their consent to take part in the study.
• Declare that they have an active social life or hobbies that stimulate their cognitive abilities
• Have a MOCA score above 26
• No tympano-ossicular dysfunction.
• Voice in noise audiometry results showing normal results.

For participants with impaired hearing :

• Pure tone audiometry showing audiograms of type N3 or N4 and symmetrical between the two ears.
• Report having experienced problems with abnormally prominent sound.

For participants with normal hearing:

- Pure tone audiometry showing audiograms with losses of less than 30 dBHl.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Be under guardianship or curatorship,
• Be deprived of liberty by judicial or administrative decision, or be under legal protection.
• Bear the consequences of an ear infection and/or have a history of an ENT disease that permanently affects hearing or balance (vestibular schwannoma, Ménière's disease, sudden or fluctuating deafness, congenital hypoacusis).