Individual factors influencing outcomes with directional hearing aid processing

Individuals with hearing loss struggle with communication in noise, even with specialized hearing aid processing. Underlying perceptual and cognitive abilities play a crucial role in speech-in-noise listening, yet much less is understood about how these abilities support performance with hearing aids. In this study, we investigate how these individual abilities affect speech recognition with directional hearing aid processing, intended to reduce signals from off-axis locations. Participants completed a sentence recognition-in-noise task with wearable hearing aids in omnidirectional processing or binaural beamforming settings. On- (0°) or off-axis ( + 90°) target sentences were mixed with gender-matched two-talker maskers that were either spatially separated or co-located. Participants also completed a comprehensive test battery to assess individual cognitive (working memory, processing speed) and perceptual (binaural, monaural processing) abilities. Results-to-date from 20 listeners show an interaction between target location, noise location, and spatial hearing aid setting. Specifically, speech recognition with the beamformer is poorer than omnidirectional processing when the target is off-axis in spatially separated noise. Participants were clustered based on the cognitive and perceptual test battery to reveal underlying patterns of individual differences in performance across test conditions. The study has implications for optimizing outcomes with directional hearing aid processing. [Work supported by NIH.]