Understanding and alleviating hearing disability: the contribution of natural behaviours

了解和缓解听力障碍：自然行为的贡献

• 批准号: MR/S003576/1
• 负责人: Graham Naylor
• 金额: $ 367.47万
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FS003576%2F1
• 关键词: Understanding; alleviating; hearing; disability; contribution

People use their hearing in all sorts of ways and in all sorts of situations. Our sense of hearing helps us to understand what is going on around us, and warns us of unseen dangers. Possibly more importantly, hearing is vital to social communication. For someone with hearing loss, their experience of hearing disability will depend on the mix of social activities they take part in, and the importance they assign to success in those activities. Very little is known about how such patterns of hearing activity differ from person to person, and between people with normal versus impaired hearing. Nor do we know whether using hearing aids changes the activities people take part in.At a more 'microscopic' level of detail, people instinctively behave in certain ways when faced with challenges to their ability to hear. For example, if we cannot hear what someone is saying because of a noisy background, we typically move closer or turn one ear towards them. We know only a little about these behaviours. People with hearing loss face greater challenges than others, and they may use different behaviours, or maybe they could be trained to use more effective behaviours. Meanwhile, hearing aids are generally designed on the assumption that people remain static and face to face, regardless of the situation. This means not only that hearing aids miss out on the chance to take advantage of their wearer's natural behaviours, but that they sometimes undermine the effectiveness of those behaviours. It is becoming increasingly recognised that in order for hearing aids to be more helpful, they must adapt to the moment-to-moment changes in situation which are part of people's everyday life. Furthermore, the clinical prescribing of hearing aids needs to take more account of each patient's individual lifestyle and activity patterns.Our research will provide new knowledge and insights which can form the basis of future improved hearing aid technology and prescribing. We will do this by:- Constructing a mathematical model describing how the acoustics of the environment, hearing impairment, sound processing in hearing aids and body movements all interact to affect people's hearing performance. To do this, we will carry out several experimental studies measuring how people move and change communication tactics when their hearing is challenged.- Determining whether real-world hearing disability (and the relief from disability provided by hearing aids) is driven by isolated events which are crucial for the individual, or by a 'grand average' of events across time.- Devising and testing hearing-aid fitting protocols which account for patients' insensitivity to acoustic changes. - Developing prototype hearing aid technologies which exploit or support listeners' natural behaviour to provide benefits beyond those currently available, and evaluating them in the laboratory and in realistic conditions.- Examining whether routine clinical data can support more individualised prescription of interventions for hearing loss. We will use a very large set of data accumulated as part of routine clinical care, which means the data are relatively loosely controlled. We will evaluate whether known relations are nevertheless reproduced. If so, we will then look for informative new patterns which might be used to improve the individualisation of treatment for hearing problems.

人们以各种方式在各种情况下使用他们的听觉。我们的听觉帮助我们了解周围发生的事情，并警告我们看不见的危险。也许更重要的是，听力对社会沟通至关重要。对于听力损失患者来说，他们的听力障碍经历将取决于他们参加的社会活动的组合，以及他们对这些活动成功的重视程度。人们对这种听力活动模式在人与人之间以及在听力正常人与听力受损人之间的差异知之甚少。我们也不知道使用助听器是否会改变人们参与的活动。在更“微观”的细节层面上，人们在面临听力挑战时会本能地以某种方式行事。例如，如果我们因为嘈杂的背景而听不到某人在说什么，我们通常会靠近他们或把一只耳朵转向他们。我们对这些行为知之甚少。听力损失患者面临着比其他人更大的挑战，他们可能会使用不同的行为，或者他们可以接受培训，以使用更有效的行为。同时，助听器的设计通常是基于这样的假设，即人们保持静止和面对面，无论情况如何。这不仅意味着助听器错过了利用佩戴者自然行为的机会，而且有时还会破坏这些行为的有效性。人们越来越认识到，为了使助听器更有帮助，它们必须适应人们日常生活中每时每刻的变化。此外，助听器的临床处方需要更多地考虑每个患者的个人生活方式和活动模式。我们的研究将提供新的知识和见解，这些知识和见解可以成为未来改进助听器技术和处方的基础。我们将通过以下方式实现这一目标：-构建一个数学模型，描述环境声学、听力障碍、助听器中的声音处理和身体运动如何相互作用，从而影响人们的听力表现。为此，我们将进行几项实验研究，测量人们在听力受到挑战时如何移动和改变沟通策略。确定现实世界的听力残疾（以及助听器提供的残疾救济）是否由对个人至关重要的孤立事件驱动，或者由跨时间的事件的“总平均值”驱动。设计和测试助听器装配协议，说明患者对声学变化不敏感。- 开发原型助听器技术，利用或支持听众的自然行为，提供超出目前可用的益处，并在实验室和现实条件下对其进行评估。检查常规临床数据是否可以支持更个性化的听力损失干预处方。我们将使用作为常规临床护理的一部分积累的非常大的数据集，这意味着数据的控制相对松散。我们将评估已知的关系是否仍然再现。如果是这样，我们将寻找信息丰富的新模式，可用于改善听力问题的个性化治疗。

项目成果

Smartphone App-Based Noncontact Ecological Momentary Assessment With Experienced and Naïve Older Participants: Feasibility Study.

• DOI: 10.2196/27677
• 发表时间: 2022-03-08
• 期刊: JMIR formative research
• 影响因子: 2.2
• 作者: Burke L;Naylor G
• 通讯作者: Naylor G

Daily-Life Fatigue in Mild to Moderate Hearing Impairment: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study.

• DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000000888
• 发表时间: 2020
• 期刊: Ear and hearing
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Burke LA;Naylor G
• 通讯作者: Naylor G

Smartphone App-Based Noncontact Ecological Momentary Assessment With Experienced and Naïve Older Participants: Feasibility Study (Preprint)

与经验丰富和天真的老年参与者进行基于智能手机应用程序的非接触式生态瞬时评估：可行性研究（预印本）

• DOI: 10.2196/preprints.27677
• 发表时间: 2021
• 作者: Burke L