Directional Audiometry: Viii. The Influence. Of Nearing Aid On The Localization Of White Noise

Abstract

The ability to localize white noise in the horizontal plane without and with hearing aids in an anechoic room was investigated in 80 patients. It was found that impaired hearing did not necessarily entail poor directional hearing. Asymmetrical hearing loss seemed to have a more pronounced effect on the directional hearing than approximately symmetrical hearing loss. Head-borne hearing aids of the type used here cannot be expected to improve directional hearing whilst, in patients with approximately symmetrically impaired hearing, directional hearing was less disturbed by binaural than by monaural aids. Directional healing can be expected to deteriorate with increasing age. The patients' own impression of their directional hearing did not always Pgree with our results. The conditions described have only validity for our patients as a group and do not allow any conclusions to be made about the individual patient's directional hearing, which must be evaluated individually.