In this project, Professor Stefan Bleeck at the University of Southampton seeks to better diagnose hidden hearing loss, which is understood to be caused by brain processes, through a new speech-to-noise hearing test.
Project start date: April 2024
Project end date: July 2025
Read about the project outcomes here.
About the project
This research proposes a new way to detect hidden hearing loss, a condition where people struggle to hear in noisy environments despite passing standard hearing tests (making it appear that they have normal hearing).
Hidden hearing loss is believed to be related to issues in the hearing parts of the brain rather than in the inner ear. Current methods for diagnosing hidden hearing loss are not very accurate or fast.
How it works
The researchers will test whether a new type of speech test, called an antiphasic speech test, can identify hidden hearing loss more reliably.
The antiphasic speech test is a speech-in-noise test which tests a person’s ability to understand speech against different levels of background noise. Making sense of speech in background noise requires central hearing processes (processes in the hearing brain), and these processes are thought to be especially affected in hidden hearing loss.
The researchers predict that people with hidden hearing less will perform loss well on this test than people with normal hearing. They will conduct a preliminary study with people with normal hearing thresholds and people with different levels of hearing loss to see if their new test can successfully identify hidden hearing loss.
How will this research benefit people with hidden hearing loss?
If successful, this new test could lead to better and faster diagnosis of hidden hearing loss, improving early intervention and management.
What we’ve learned so far
After testing 30 participants, the researchers concluded that the antiphasic speech test isn’t the best approach to detect hidden hearing loss.
This result prompted to pivot their research towards an exploratory analysis, revealing that poorer performance in the antiphasic speech test was associated with tinnitus. Next, the researchers will seek to validate this finding testing a larger cohort.
About the researcher
Stefan Bleeck is Professor of Hearing Science and Technology at the University of Southampton. He was awarded an RNID Innovation Seed Fund grant for this project in 2024.
I see too many people in their 50s and 60s suffering from hearing loss but seemingly unable to admit that they do, and to realise that they might be better off with a hearing aid early on to improve their quality of life.
This is what motivates me to try to improve the world of people who are deaf, have hearing loss, or who have tinnitus.”
