AUDITORY EXTERNALIZATION IN HEARING-IMPAIRED LISTENERS WITH REMOTE MICROPHONE SYSTEMS FOR HEARING AIDS

摘要

The auditory system enables listeners to estimate the localization of auditory events resorting notably to individual binaural cues and room reflections reaching the eardrum. For hearing-impaired listeners using hearing aids, those cues are possibly distorted or not available in various situations such as remote microphone systems. This can make auditory distance evaluation a challenging task and often results in inside-the-head sound perception. The present study aims at evaluating the effect of several binaural rendering strategies on auditory externalization in hearing-impaired and normal-hearing listeners. Within a multiple-stimulus listening paradigm, normal-hearing and moderate-to-highly-profound hearing-impaired listeners were asked to rate the perceived distance of various stimuli presented over headphones, while visual cues were available. Results show that a degree of externalization can be achieved for most of the aided hearing-impaired listeners with a simple generic spatialization method and superimposed early reflections.