Hearing Aids and the Brain

VA Office of Research and Development

Status: Completed

Conditions: Hearing Loss

Treatments: Device: hearing aids

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT03279510

C2396-P

Details and patient eligibility

About

Hearing aids are being fit on inexperienced hearing aid users and the short-term and long-term effects are measured. This research aims to improve understanding of the individual factors that contribute to receiving benefit from hearing aids and lead to more individualized treatment of hearing loss.

Full description

Hearing aids are used to improve audibility for patients with hearing loss and improve speech perception. In addition to these immediate benefits, amplification has the potential to have long-term effects on higher level auditory processing abilities, such as cognition or other abilities required for complex listening tasks. These long-term acclimatization effects are not well understood and merit further behavioral and physiological examination. Hearing aids will be fit on inexperienced hearing aid users and outcome measures will be used to determine immediate and long-term effects of hearing aids. This research may provide a more detailed view of individual differences that contribute to receiving benefit from a hearing aid and may lead to more individualized treatment of hearing loss.

Enrollment: 20 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 50+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• 50 years of age or older
• Bilateral, mild to moderately severe hearing loss
• Inexperienced hearing aid users

Exclusion criteria

• Subject deciding that they do not wish to wear hearing aids as necessitated per study protocol
• Audiometric thresholds that suggest research stimuli would not be audible
• Conductive hearing loss and/or other significant ear or hearing problems
• Non-native English speakers
• Conditions or circumstances that would preclude a participant from wearing hearing aids consistently or finishing the study
• An inability to perform or complete the experimental tasks

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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20 participants in 1 patient group

Hearing aids

Experimental group

Description:

All study participants will be fit with hearing aids.

Treatment:

Device: hearing aids