Assessment, modeling, and compensation of inner and outer hair cell damage

Authors

  • Steffen Kortlang Medizinische Physik, Universität Oldenburg and Cluster of Excellence ‘Hearing4all’, Oldenburg, Germany
  • Stephan D. Ewert Medizinische Physik, Universität Oldenburg and Cluster of Excellence ‘Hearing4all’, Oldenburg, Germany

Abstract

Reduced temporal fine structure (TFS) sensitivity is proposed to accompany cochlear hearing loss even if audibility and loudness perception are compensated for by hearing aids, or can be present in elderly listeners with unremarkable audiometric thresholds. In both cases, inner hair cell (IHC) damage or neuronal degeneration of subsequent stages can be assumed to play a role. To investigate psychoacoustic measures for assessment of IHC loss, random frequency modulation (FM) detection thresholds in quiet and in background noise were collected for six young normal-hearing (NH) listeners, six older NH listeners, and eleven HI listeners. Two possible detection mechanisms based on phase-locking and amplitude modulation (AM) were assessed in a probabilistic, ‘spiking’ auditory model [Meddis, J Acoust Soc Am 119, 406 (2006)]. IHC and outer hair cell (OHC) damage were incorporated and adapted to predict the psychoacoustic data. The resulting hearing-impaired (HI) model was then used to simulate the auditory nerve (AN) response in aided conditions with an improved model- based dynamic compression algorithm [based on Ewert and Grimm, ISAAR, 393 (2011)].Comparison to simulated normal-hearing AN responses revealed partial compensation of OHC damage while IHC damage resulted in supra-threshold ‘internal noise’ which might contribute to the limited benefit from compensation strategies in hearing aids.

References

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Additional Files

Published

2013-12-15

How to Cite

Kortlang, S., & Ewert, S. D. (2013). Assessment, modeling, and compensation of inner and outer hair cell damage. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research, 4, 341–348. Retrieved from https://proceedings.isaar.eu/index.php/isaarproc/article/view/2013-38

Issue

Vol. 4 (2013): Auditory Plasticity - Listening with the Brain

Section

2013/7. Hearing loss assessment and characterization

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