Spatial perception with over-the-counter hearing aids

Abstract

While hearing aids are critical for providing audibility and supporting speech intelligibility, they can have negative effects on spatial perception. Currently, the range of available styles of hearing aids is rapidly expanding with the introduction of over-the-counter devices (OTCs), but little is known about their effects on spatial perception. Importantly, these devices are aimed at listeners with relatively mild hearing losses, who may be especially sensitive to spatial distortions. Our broad goal is to comprehensively characterize spatial perception with different OTCs, considering azimuth identification, front-back discrimination, and sound externalization. In an initial study, twelve adult listeners with normal hearing were bilaterally fitted with OTCs representing different form factors: behind-the-ear (BTE; Lexie B2 Plus with open and closed domes), completely-in-canal (CIC; Eargo SE), and earbuds (Apple Pro 2). Each listener completed the different spatial tasks while wearing each set of devices, with unaided performance as a reference. While the mean results revealed disruptive effects of each OTC for all tasks, the size of the effect depended strongly on the device and on the individual listener. A follow-up study is expanding the set of OTCs, including listeners with mild-to-moderate hearing loss, and supplementing the behavioral results with acoustical analyses of ear-canal signals.