At low levels, increasing the presentation levels leads to increased audibility and better speech intelligibility. At high presentation levels, several studies have observed a decrease in speech intelligibility as the presentation level increased. Termed ‘rollover’, this audiological phenomenon has been observed in listeners with and without elevated hearing thresholds. While the cause of rollover is not clear, it may contribute to the limited satisfaction reported by many hearing-aid users.
Here, we present ongoing work regarding the detection and compensation of rollover in hearing-impaired listeners. On the detection side, we investigate a reliable methodology to measure rollover with speech audiometry, as well as potential correlations to other audiological measurements (e.g., the acoustic reflex or spectro-temporal modulation detection). On the compensation side, we further evaluate the ‘Sweet-Spot Compression’, a novel hearing-aid fitting strategy aimed at preventing rollover more effectively than clinically established fitting rationales.
Seminario INCyL – Lukas Jürgensen
