What Brainstem Recordings May or May Not Be Able to Tell Us about Hearing Aid-Amplified Signals

摘要

Performance variability among people who wear hearing aids presents a challenge for clinicians. Although some clients appear to make use of amplified signals with little effort, other clients report frustration and may reject their hearing aids altogether. Some of the explanations underlying performance variability likely result from a poorly fitted device; others might result from reasons related to how the amplified signal is being represented in the central auditory system. We believe that perception is dependent on the neural detection, representation, and integration of the amplified speech and noise. For this reason it is important to understand how amplification modifies the acoustic content of a signal as well as the neural representation of the amplified sound. It is therefore necessary to examine the interaction between hearing aid-processed acoustic input and the neural networks that are activated. Here we focus on the role of brainstem encoding to determine if auditory brainstem responses might provide information to help explain why some people are able to make better use of amplified sound than others. More specifically, we review the literature to determine if brainstem measures might someday be used to guide clinicians when fitting a hearing aid.