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Listening Effort in the European population: a New innovative programme of research and training (LISTEN)

Dorothea Wendt

Principal Scientist

Eriksholm Research Centre

LISTEN

Introduction

Hearing impairment is a leading cause of disability worldwide. As people age, their hearing ability deteriorates inevitably. Increased listening effort, distress, lack of energy, fatigue, increased levels of need for recovery and sick leave are notorious consequences of age-related hearing loss.

LISTEN aimed to address cognitive consequences of hearing loss including listening effort and fatigue. The project, which was funded by the European Commission and ran between 2013 until 2017, was a collaboration between Eriksholm Research Centre, VU University medical center, Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research, Glasgow in the UK.

Aims

Traditional speech recognition measures have poor sensitivity when acoustical conditions are easy and effortless, for example when listening to speech in quiet conditions. Thus, they are not always suited for evaluating research-oriented outcomes and benefits of hearing aids. Research within LISTEN focused on the development of new tools to evaluate how hearing solutions, such as hearing aids, improve speech understanding and reduce the effort required to perceive speech. More specifically, the project worked towards new methods and features based on the pupil size, including e.g. pupil reflex parameters, for a potential application in audiology research. Two Early Stage Researchers, Barbara Ohlenforst and Yang Wang, were trained at the VU (Amsterdam) and at Eriksholm Research Centre.

Results

Results from the LISTEN project have further improved the pupillometry method so that modulations in listening effort across the entire range of everyday listening situations, from acoustically challenging to easy listening situations, can be revealed.

Specifically, LISTEN provided evidence highlighting the value of more realistic (that is – easier and quieter) listening situations rather than the acoustically challenging situations when assessing hearing aid benefits. A novel finding was that while hearing aids do increase speech understanding in difficult listening situations, they also significantly reduce listening effort under easier listening conditions.

Moreover, studies from LISTEN revealed that an individual’s level of fatigue influences the level of listening effort that can be exerted, representing a breakthrough in our understanding of the mechanisms behind listening effort and pupil dilation responses.

LISTEN people

Publications

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Ohlenforst B, Zekveld A, Jansma E, Wang Y, Naylor G, Lorens A, Lunner T, Kramer S. Effects of Hearing Impairment and Hearing Aid Amplification on Listening Effort: A Systematic Review. Williams And Wilkins. Published in Ear and Hearing, 2017.
Wang Y, Zekveld AA, Naylor G, Ohlenforst B, Jansma EP, Lorens A, Lunner T, Kramer SE (2016). Parasympathetic Nervous System Dysfunction, as Identified by Pupil Light Reflex, and Its Possible Connection to Hearing Impairment. PLoS One, 11
Wang Y, Zekveld AA, Naylor G et al. (2017). Relations between self-reported daily-life fatigue, hearing status and pupil dilation during a speech perception in noise task. Ear and Hearing. Online. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0000000000000512.
Ohlenforst B, Zekveld AA, Lunner T, Wendt D, Naylor G, Wang Y, Verfeld NJ, Kramer SE (2017). Impact of stimulus-related factors and hearing impairment on listening effort as indicated by pupil dilation. Hearing Research, 351, pp. 68-79, doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2017.05.012
Wendt D, Koelewijn T, Książek P, Kramer S, Lunner T (2018). Toward a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of masker type and signal-to-noise ratio on the pupillary response while performing a speech-in-noise test. Hearing Research.
Wang Y, Zekveld AA, Wendt D, Lunner T, Naylor G, Kramer SE (2018). Pupil light reflex evoked by light-emitting diode and computer screen: Methodology and association with need for recovery in daily life. PLoS One 13(6)
Ohlenforst B, Wendt D, Kramer S, Naylor G, Zekveld A, Lunner T (2018). Impact of SNR, masker type and noise reduction processing on sentence recognition performance and listening effort as indicated by the pupil dilation response. Hearing research.

Team

Dorothea Wendt

Principal Scientist

Eriksholm Research Centre

Barbara Ohlenforst

PhD student

VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam

Yang Wang

PhD student

VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam

Sophia Kramer

Professor

VU University medical center

Adriana A Zekveld

Senior Scientist

VU University medical center

Graham Naylor

Professor & Director

University of Nottingham – Scottish Section

View all

Partners

  • VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam

  • Eriksholm Research Centre, Denmark

  • University of Nottingham – Scottish section

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Alfi - Laboratory tests
CURRENT
Assessment of Listening-related Fatigue in Daily- Life (ALFi)
3008,1037,10303,10579

Cognitive hearing effort compensation, Personalized audiology

Hearing loss can have significant consequences beyond a reduction in audibility. For example, greate...
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Hearing loss not only reduces audibility but also impairs speech comprehension and increases cogniti...
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