Rapid Brain Adaptation to Hearing Amplification: A Randomized Crossover Trial of Personal Sound Amplification Products.
Maxime Perron, Andrew Dimitrijevic, Claude Alain
PMID 40910451WHAT IT FOUND
After three hours of use, older adults wearing high-end personal sound amplification devices reported less listening effort and showed a brain pattern linked to less effort in the hardest noise.
This was a short lab test, not hearing aid evidence.
Key findings
01Self-reported listening effort, a primary outcome, was lower with PSAPs, mean 3.74 versus 4.23 on a seven-point scale.
02At the hardest noise level, SNR -3 dB, brain alpha activity showed stronger suppression when PSAPs were used.
03Alpha activity was associated with self-reported effort, but not with accuracy or reaction time.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 25 participants were analysed; 14 met the mild hearing loss criterion and all others had normal hearing, so this does not show effects for moderate or severe hearing loss. The study used one high-end PSAP model, so results may not apply to cheaper or less capable devices. The test was a three-hour lab session, not everyday use, and long-term effects were not measured. PSAPs are not intended for hearing loss and are not professionally fitted hearing aids, so this is not evidence that they replace hearing aids. The PSAP provided amplification, 16-channel noise reduction, feedback cancelation, and dual microphone directionality, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. Self-reported effort can be biased by perceived performance or expectation of benefit. EEG baseline used a noisy interval, which may make alpha direction harder to interpret.
Declared interests
Funding came from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the William Demant Foundation; one author received a Canadian Institutes of Health Research graduate scholarship. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that PSAPs are proven hearing aids for older adults with hearing loss. The devices are not intended for hearing loss, the study lasted three hours in a lab, and only one high-end model was tested.