Skip to content
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • News
  • About us
    • Our team
    • Students
    • History
    • Partnerships
    • Contact us
Menu
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • News
  • About us
    • Our team
    • Students
    • History
    • Partnerships
    • Contact us
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • News
  • About us
    • Our team
    • Students
    • History
    • Partnerships
    • Contact us
Menu
  • Projects
  • Publications
  • News
  • About us
    • Our team
    • Students
    • History
    • Partnerships
    • Contact us
Back

Ecophysiology of Hearing 

Jeppe Høy Christensen

Principal Scientist

Eriksholm Research Centre

Ecophysiology of Hearing 

Introduction

It is currently not possible to objectively measure and evaluate hearing outcomes in daily life. This is a problem since clinical tests do not necessarily generalize to everyday situations. For example, living with a hearing loss can be both stressful and tiresome due to the additional cognitive resources needed for, e.g., speech comprehension in noisy situations. Such effects are typically not accounted for by standard clinical audiometric evaluations.

Methodology. Data are collected using seamless and unobtrusive technology.
ECOPHYS - Data

Aims

This project and related investigations aim to unravel the physiological signals that are modulated by hearing and hearing-related behaviors (such as communication) in the real world. Signals such as heart rate and breathing have been linked to various hearing- and listening-related outcomes. For example, poor acoustic conditions can induce stress (increase heart rate). We hope that by increasing our understanding of what causes and moderates associations between physiological signals, acoustic conditions, and behavioral changes in real life, we can objectively determine if and how hearing-aid interventions benefit end-users in daily life.

Methodology

The methodologies we use are strongly inspired by research in animal ecology, which typically rely on observational measures of physiological, environmental, and behavioral signals. We extract information about sound environments and listening conditions from the test participants’ own hearing aids, and we record physiological data and physical activity using wrist-worn wearables (i.e., smart-watches or fitness trackers).

In addition, smartphone-based questionnaires are typically supplied to test participants to acquire subjective data regarding, e.g., their listening experiences and motivations. Due to the complex nature of the data (it is longitudinal and multi-level), we apply advanced statistical modeling and machine learning to make inferences.

The physiological responses to hearing in New York US, in 23 students across a 4-day excursion (unpublished). The events (listed on top) differ in acoustic condition represented by Noise (x-axis), which is calculated as the sound pressure level minus the signal-to-noise ratio in normalised units. 

ECOPHYS

Results

The project has delivered evidence regarding human physiological responses to hearing in the real world. This shows that around 5% of daily heart-rate fluctuations in a group of hearing-aid users are explained by acoustic signals from their environment alone (controlling for physical activity). Namely, higher sound pressure levels are associated with increased heart rate, while higher signal-to-noise ratios are associated with decreased heart rate, specifically in louder (>60 dB SPL) environments. Recent results suggest that these associations are stronger when listening to speech compared to non-specific listening, and that the physiological responses are related to active listening rather than to passive hearing.

Publications

Loading...
Christensen J H, Saunders H G, Porsbo M, Pontoppidan N H. The everyday acoustic environment and its association with human heart rate: evidence from real-world data logging with hearing aids and wearables. Published in Royal Society Open Science. 2021.
Christensen H J, Saunders H G, Havtorn L, Pontoppidan H N. Real-World Hearing Aid Usage Patterns and Smartphone Connectivity. Published in Frontiers in Digital Health 2021.
Christensen J H, Andersson K E, Neher T. Distinct influence of everyday noise on cardiovascular stress. Conference Proceedings of Internoise. 2022.
Andersson K E, Skipper R S, Christensen J H, Neher T. Exploring daily-life listening experience: Associations between acoustic factors, heart rate, and self-reported outcomes. Poster presented at Journal of Hearing Science. 2022.

Team

Jeppe Høy Christensen

Principal Scientist

Eriksholm Research Centre

Dorothea Wendt

Principal Scientist

Eriksholm Research Centre

Lars Bramsløw

Principal Scientist

Eriksholm Research Centre

Andreea Micula

Scientist

Eriksholm Research Centre

Ivana Konvalinka

Associate Professor

DTU Compute, collaborator on a Master thesis project

View all

Partners

  • DTU Compute

You may also be interested in

Loading...
EVOTION
FINALIZED
EVOTION
4409

Personalized audiology

EVOTION was a Horizon 2020 project funded by European Commission with 13 partners running from 2016 ...
EVOTION was a Horizon 2020 project funded by European Commission with 13 partners running from…
MERHO: Measuring and evaluating real-world hearing-aid outcomes 
CURRENT
MERHO: Measuring and evaluating real-world hearing-aid outcomes 
10303

Personalized audiology

New hearing-aid features and listening programs are designed to further improve hearing-aid usersâ€...
New hearing-aid features and listening programs are designed to further improve hearing-aid users’ listening…

You may also be interested in

EVOTION
FINALIZED
EVOTION
4409

Personalized audiology

EVOTION was a Horizon 2020 project funded by European Commission with 13 partners running from 2016 ...
EVOTION was a Horizon 2020 project funded by European Commission with 13 partners running from…
MERHO: Measuring and evaluating real-world hearing-aid outcomes 
CURRENT
MERHO: Measuring and evaluating real-world hearing-aid outcomes 
10303

Personalized audiology

New hearing-aid features and listening programs are designed to further improve hearing-aid usersâ€...
New hearing-aid features and listening programs are designed to further improve hearing-aid users’ listening…

People are our most
valuable source of
insights

Facebook

Instagram

LinkedIn

Youtube

  • Eriksholm Research Centre
  • Rørtangvej 20
  • DK-3070 Snekkersten
  • Denmark
We are a part of Oticon, a world leader in hearing care. We share the same philosophy that people are our main source of insights
Bliv testperson
  • +45 48 29 89 00
  • mail@eriksholm.com
  • Cookie policy
  • Disclaimer

© 2023 Eriksholm – Designed by Aveo web&marketing

Manage consent to cookies
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service expressly requested by the subscriber or user, or solely for the purpose of transmitting a communication via an electronic communication network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is necessary to create user profiles for the purpose of sending advertisements or to track the user on a website or across multiple websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
Preferences
{title} {title} {title}