DEVELOPMENT OF AUDIOMETRIC LOCALIZATION TESTS

听力学专家经常发现，患者佩戴两个耳机可能会受益 助听器。如果两只耳朵都有足够的残余听力， 结果通常是改进了本地化或确定 声源的位置。具有良好的本地化能力， 患者还能够在以下情况下听到选定的信号源 环境噪音(即“鸡尾酒会效应”)。 因此，现在处方和购买两个助听器 很普通。然而，对于听觉学家来说，还没有可用的仪器 将使他们能够评估客户本地化的能力 辅助或非辅助条件下的声源。结果, 配戴助听器时不考虑本地化能力 或在听觉功能的评估中。这些程序是 对确保患者获得最大可能的 受益于双耳辅助设备，因为 佩戴和维护两个助听器的成本和不便。 这一赠款项目的工作旨在制定一项 紧凑型设备，可实现精确的定位测量 能够以经济和快速的方式制造。方法论 已在第一阶段进行了实验评估。 第二，一个实用的装置将被设计，彻底测试，并 在临床应用中得到提炼。

Audiologist frequently find that patients may benefit by wearing two hearing aids. If there is adequate residual hearing in both ears, the result is generally an improved ability to localize, or determine the location of, a source of sound. With good localization ability, patients are also able to hear a selected source in the presence of ambient noise (i.e., the "cocktail party effect"). As a result, prescription and purchase of two hearing aids is now common. However, no instrumentation is available to audiologists that would enable them to assess the ability of the client to localize sound sources either in aided or unaided conditions. As a result, localization ability is not considered in the fitting of hearing aids or in the assessment of auditory function. Such procedures are essential to ensure that the patient obtains the maximum possible benefit from binaural aids in light of the considerable additional cost and inconvenience of wearing and maintaining two hearing aids. The work on this grant project is aimed at the development of a compact device that will allow accurate measurement of localization ability to be made economically and quickly. The theory of the method to be used has been evaluated experimentally during Phase I. In Phase II, a practical device is to be designed, thoroughly tested, and refined in clinical use.