Directional hearing aids: then and now.

Directional microphone hearing aids can lead to improved speech recognition when speech and noise are coming from different directions. This technology provides limited benefits, however, and in specific instances use of a directional hearing aid mode can be detrimental. This article discusses the benefits and limitations of directional amplification, summarizes some current work in directional amplification, and recommends clinical application relative to the use of directional amplification.

[1]  R C Seewald,et al.  Speech recognition with in-the-ear and behind-the-ear dual-microphone hearing instruments. , 2000, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[2]  Paula P. Henry,et al.  Full Time Directional versus User Selectable Microphone Modes in Hearing Aids , 2003, Ear and hearing.

[3]  Mary T Cord,et al.  Predicting hearing aid microphone preference in everyday listening. , 2004, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[4]  C A Sammeth,et al.  Field trial evaluations of a switched directional/omnidirectional in-the-ear hearing instrument. , 1999, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[5]  Paula P. Henry,et al.  Impact of Compression and Hearing Aid Style on Directional Hearing Aid Benefit and Performance , 2001, Ear and hearing.

[6]  D B Hawkins,et al.  Signal-to-noise ratio advantage of binaural hearing aids and directional microphones under different levels of reverberation. , 1984, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[7]  T Ricketts,et al.  The Impact of Head Angle on Monaural and Binaural Performance with Directional and Omnidirectional Hearing Aids , 2000, Ear and hearing.

[8]  Todd A Ricketts,et al.  Application of Frequency Importance Functions to Directivity for Prediction of Benefit in Uniform Fields , 2005, Ear and hearing.

[9]  T Ricketts,et al.  Impact of Noise Source Configuration on Directional Hearing Aid Benefit and Performance , 2000, Ear and hearing.

[10]  H B Nielsen.  Clinical experiments with hearing aids with amplitude compression. , 1978, Scandinavian audiology. Supplementum.

[11]  T Ricketts,et al.  Directivity Quantification in Hearing Aids: Fitting and Measurement Effects , 2000, Ear and hearing.

[12]  Mary T Cord,et al.  Influence of environmental factors on hearing aid microphone preference. , 2002, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[13]  D. Byrne,et al.  Effects of long-term bilateral and unilateral fitting of different hearing aid types on the ability to locate sounds. , 1992, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[14]  Sigfrid D. Soli,et al.  Norms for the hearing in noise test: The influence of spatial separation, hearing loss, and English language experience on speech reception thresholds , 1992 .

[15]  Teresa Y C Ching,et al.  Methods and Applications of the Audibility Index in Hearing Aid Selection and Fitting , 2002, Trends in amplification.

[16]  M Valente,et al.  Recognition of speech in noise with hearing aids using dual microphones. , 1995, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[17]  M Valente,et al.  Performance of dual-microphone in-the-ear hearing aids. , 2000, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[18]  T Ricketts,et al.  Predicting directional hearing aid benefit for individual listeners. , 2000, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[19]  Todd A Ricketts,et al.  Distance and Reverberation Effects on Directional Benefit , 2003, Ear and hearing.

[20]  Michael Valente,et al.  Hearing AIDS: Standards, Options, and Limitations , 1996 .

[21]  R M Cox,et al.  The Connected Speech Test version 3: audiovisual administration. , 1989, Ear and hearing.

[22]  M Samantha Lewis,et al.  Speech perception in noise: directional microphones versus frequency modulation (FM) systems. , 2004, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[23]  M. Killion,et al.  Development of a quick speech-in-noise test for measuring signal-to-noise ratio loss in normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. , 2004, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[24]  H. Dillon,et al.  Client Oriented Scale of Improvement (COSI) and its relationship to several other measures of benefit and satisfaction provided by hearing aids. , 1997, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology.

[25]  A van Wieringen,et al.  Speech intelligibility in noisy environments with one- and two-microphone hearing aids. , 1999, Audiology : official organ of the International Society of Audiology.

[26]  S. Soli,et al.  Development of the Hearing in Noise Test for the measurement of speech reception thresholds in quiet and in noise. , 1994, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.