Abstract
Simulations of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and bilateral cochlear implantation (BCI) have been modeled successfully under static and non-real time conditions. This study performed two experiments testing the validity of a novel real-time SNHL/BCI simulation application for iOS using an in-ear binaural-recording headphone apparatus. The first experiment measured spatial release from masking (SRM) with normal hearing (NH), against headset apparatus simulations of NH, SNHL, and BCI using HINT sentences, speech shaped noise and forward masking. A one-sample t-test revealed significant differences between NH and simulated SNHL and BCI conditions showing reduced benefit from SRM. The second experiment employed noise bursts across nine frontal-plane loudspeakers and measured localization accuracy under NH and six frequency band BCI simulation conditions. Repeated measures two-way ANOVA and Cronbach’s Alpha suggested significantly reduced localization ability with BCI simulation. While further testing is needed, results here provide promising evidence that real-time binaural recording with low-latency processing and in-ear playback may be used to simulate SNHL and the BCI percept in NH listeners. The limitations and potential of this technology to expand the subject pool and expedite innovative testing are discussed.
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