Clinically Feasible Cortical Measures of Hearing Aid Benefit

Hearing speech is fundamental for human communication. Infants born with hearing loss often receive hearing aids by 2-3 months of age to improve access to speech and avoid delays in communication development. A current clinical challenge is the limited ability to assess whether hearing aids are of benefit during infancy. In infants so young, the only feasible way to measure hearing aid-facilitated access to speech is by using electroencephalogram (EEG).  This project team aims to develop an EEG-based method that can measure access to speech by measuring cortical neural activity and inferring frequency-specific audibility using machine learning techniques. The method has the potential to be a clinically versatile and objective measure of hearing aid benefit  that overcomes limitations related to stimulus, pathology and information gained using previous methods.  In this 2-year proposal, UW–Madison will partner with an industry partner to facilitate future clinical translation of the novel method.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

Viji Easwar, assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders

CO-PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:

William Sethares, professor of electrical and computer engineering