Multisensory Integration in Individuals With Various Hearing Characteristics Using Virtual Reality

Background and Objectives This study aimed to explore speech performance using virtual reality (VR), comparing hearing aid (HA) and non-HA users, and to investigate the relationship between VR and conventional testing methods.Materials and Method Eighteen non-HA users and 13 HA users were enrolled in the study and completed puretone audiometry and speech testing in both quiet and noise. The conventional speech test was conducted in auditory only (AO). The multimodal testing conditions included AO, visual only (VO), and audiovisual (AV). Video recordings of a speaker saying test sentences at a café were displayed on a monitor (VO) and a VR headset (AV). Participants performed a sentence repetition task in AO, VO, and AV and percent-correct scores were obtained. All participants completed a questionnaire on listening abilities in diverse situations.Results A significant main effect of modality was observed, with the highest speech performance for the non-HA users, followed by HA users in the aided and unaided conditions. Post-hoc comparisons showed a significant difference between AO and VO conditions. No significant correlations were found between questionnaire results and multimodal speech performance in either quiet or noise.Conclusion The addition of visual information is helpful for communication for those with HL regardless of HA use and the presence of noise, and multisensory integration may play a more critical role in certain situations depending on the characteristics of HL. There is a potential for multimodal testing to be employed into clinical practice, but ample work is still needed to further validate the test method.