Sound Perception Study of Hearing-impaired People With Hearing Aids

NCT06691087 | Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: 2024-0402024-A01112-45
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 75
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The aim of the ETERNEL project will be to study the influence of the perception of a single sound timbre on the understanding of a complex sound scene in hearing-impaired people with hearing aids. This will be done by quantifying the inability to manage a complex sound scene as a function of the timbre of the sounds making it up. The more a sound interferes with understanding the complex sound scene, the more salient that sound is considered to be. In this way, the investigators can determine which timbre dimensions make sounds particularly salient for the hearing impaired.

Conditions

Auditory Perception

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Percentage of correct answers in melody comparison tasks in the hearing-impaired group compared with the normal-hearing group,

  3-hours

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Characterisation of the dissimilarity between pairs of stimuli measured by a continuous perceptual scale

  3-hours

• Evaluation of the perceived loudness level of a set of stimuli, measured using scales of magnitude.

  3-hours

• Comparison between the results of speech audiometry in noise, i.e number of words correctly repeated, with native settings versus settings minimising the discomfort of salient sounds for each participant with hearing loss.

  up to 24 months

Study Arms (2)

Normal Hearing participants

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Behavioral: Influence of the parameters of the sound timbre on the perception of a sound; Behavioral: Complex sound scene comprehension test

Hearing-impaired with hearing aids

EXPERIMENTAL

Behavioral: Influence of the parameters of the sound timbre on the perception of a sound; Behavioral: Complex sound scene comprehension test; Behavioral: Complex sound scene comprehension test with hearing aids

Interventions

Influence of the parameters of the sound timbre on the perception of a sound BEHAVIORAL

The experiment consists of evaluating the sound level of n complex stimuli, then equalising them in loudness, in order to measure a loudness curve in function of timbre descriptors. The stimuli will then be listened to again in pairs. The task is there to compare the stimuli using a VAS to indicate how different the two sounds are.

Hearing-impaired with hearing aids; Normal Hearing participants

Complex sound scene comprehension test BEHAVIORAL

The experiment consists in identifying the parameters of the sound timbre that most disturb the understanding of complex sound scenes, by asking the participants to identify sounds whose timbre has been modified.

Hearing-impaired with hearing aids; Normal Hearing participants

Complex sound scene comprehension test with hearing aids BEHAVIORAL

The experiment will be identical to intervention 2. This time, the modification of the stimulus timbres will focus on the most problematic dimensional modifications, i.e. those where the difference between normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners is greatest. We will then modify the signal processing parameters of the hearing aid simulator (for example, the size of the averaging window or the gain balance of the filters), to observe their impact on the salience of certain stimuli.

Hearing-impaired with hearing aids

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 60 Years - 75 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• For all participants:
• Age between 60 and 75
• Native French speaker
• Have given their consent to take part in the study.
• Declare that they have an active social life or hobbies that stimulate their cognitive abilities
• Have a MOCA score above 26
• No tympano-ossicular dysfunction.
• Voice in noise audiometry results showing normal results.
• For participants with impaired hearing :
• Pure tone audiometry showing audiograms of type N3 or N4 and symmetrical between the two ears.
• Report having experienced problems with abnormally prominent sound.
• For participants with normal hearing:
• \- Pure tone audiometry showing audiograms with losses of less than 30 dBHl.

You may not qualify if:

• Be under guardianship or curatorship,
• Be deprived of liberty by judicial or administrative decision, or be under legal protection.
• Bear the consequences of an ear infection and/or have a history of an ENT disease that permanently affects hearing or balance (vestibular schwannoma, Ménière's disease, sudden or fluctuating deafness, congenital hypoacusis).

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Institut Pasteur: lead
• Institut de l'Audition: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

CeRIAH

Paris, France

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Interventions

Hearing Aids

Intervention Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Wearable Electronic Devices; Electrical Equipment and Supplies; Equipment and Supplies; Sensory Aids

Study Officials

• Paul Avan

  CERIAH

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Céline Quinsac

CONTACT

0176535029; celine.quinsac@pasteur.fr

Armand Schwarz

CONTACT

armand.schwarz@pasteur.fr

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: INDUSTRY
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 14, 2024
• First Posted: November 15, 2024
• Study Start: April 22, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): November 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): November 1, 2028
• Last Updated: March 31, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-03

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

FR (1)