Individual Differences within and across Feedback Suppression Hearing Aids

Abstract

Background: New and improved methods of feedback suppression are routinely introduced in hearing aids; however, comparisons of additional gain before feedback (AGBF) values across instruments are complicated by potential variability across subjects and measurement methods. Purpose: To examine the variability in AGBF values across individual listeners and an acoustic manikin. Research Design: A descriptive study of the reliability and variability of the AGBF measured within six commercially available feedback suppression (FS) algorithms using probe microphone techniques. Study Sample: Sixteen participants and an acoustic manikin. Results: The range of AGBF across the six FS algorithms was 0 to 15 dB, consistent with other recent studies. However, measures made in the participants ears and on the acoustic manikin within the same instrument suggest that across instrument comparisons of AGBF measured using acoustic manikin techniques may be misleading, especially when differences between hearing aids are small (i.e., less than 6 dB). Individual subject results also revealed considerable variability within the same FS algorithms. The range of AGBF values was as small as 7 dB and as large as 16 dB depending on the specific FS algorithm, suggesting that some models are much more robust than others. Conclusions: These results suggest caution when selecting FS algorithms clinically since different models can demonstrate similar AGBF when averaging across ears, but result in quite different AGBF values in a single individual ear.