Effects of Increasing the Overall Level or Fitting Hearing Aids on Emotional Responses to Sounds.

The test was done in a sound booth with recorded nonspeech sounds, so it is unclear whether these changes would be noticeable in everyday listening. The largest pleasantness differences were under 1.2 points on a 9-point scale, and the paper does not establish which change matters clinically. The sample was small and consisted of community-dwelling adults who were not depressed and did not use antidepressants, so results may not apply to people with mental health conditions. The hearing-loss group included both experienced and new hearing aid users, but all were tested with new study hearing aids, so adaptation time and long-term use were not assessed. Nonlinear frequency compression was set minimally aggressive; more aggressive settings may have different effects. The hearing aids were one brand and style with occluding eartips, and all features except feedback suppression were off, so results may not generalize to everyday hearing aid settings. Nonlinear frequency compression did not improve audibility at 6,300 Hz for all participants (21 of 23). Four normal-hearing participants were excluded after mild high-frequency hearing loss was detected. The groups differed in sex distribution (6 males in the normal-hearing group and 16 males in the hearing-loss group), and the authors discuss gender as a possible confound for unpleasant-sound ratings. The study did not test aided listening at 80 dBA, so it cannot say how hearing aids affect emotional responses at louder everyday levels.

The paper states that Sonova AG funded the work. No other conflict-of-interest information is provided in the supplied text.

Do not conclude that hearing aids make nonspeech sounds feel more pleasant for adults with hearing loss. Hearing aids without nonlinear frequency compression lowered pleasantness compared with unaided listening, and even with nonlinear frequency compression enabled, adults with hearing loss still rated pleasant sounds about 1 point lower than normal-hearing peers.