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NCT Number: NCT06691087

Sound Perception Study of Hearing-impaired People With Hearing Aids

The aim of the ETERNEL project will be to study the influence of the perception of a single sound timbre on the understanding of a complex sound scene in hearing-impaired people with hearing aids. This will be done by quantifying the inability to manage a complex sound scene as a function of the timbre of the sounds making it up. The more a sound interferes with understanding the complex sound scene, the more salient that sound is considered to be. In this way, the investigators can determine which timbre dimensions make sounds particularly salient for the hearing impaired.

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Key information

Conditions

Auditory Perception

Age range

60 year–75 year

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

CeRIAH

Paris, France

Location status: Recruiting

Location contact

Paul Avan

CONTACT

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

For all participants:

  • Age between 60 and 75
  • Native French speaker
  • Have given their consent to take part in the study.
  • Declare that they have an active social life or hobbies that stimulate their cognitive abilities
  • Have a MOCA score above 26
  • No tympano-ossicular dysfunction.
  • Voice in noise audiometry results showing normal results.

For participants with impaired hearing :

  • Pure tone audiometry showing audiograms of type N3 or N4 and symmetrical between the two ears.
  • Report having experienced problems with abnormally prominent sound.

For participants with normal hearing:

  • Pure tone audiometry showing audiograms with losses of less than 30 dBHl.

Exclusion criteria

  • Be under guardianship or curatorship,
  • Be deprived of liberty by judicial or administrative decision, or be under legal protection.
  • Bear the consequences of an ear infection and/or have a history of an ENT disease that permanently affects hearing or balance (vestibular schwannoma, Ménière's disease, sudden or fluctuating deafness, congenital hypoacusis).

Treatment and study plan

Influence of the parameters of the sound timbre on the perception of a sound

Behavioral

The experiment consists of evaluating the sound level of n complex stimuli, then equalising them in loudness, in order to measure a loudness curve in function of timbre descriptors.

The stimuli will then be listened to again in pairs. The task is there to compare the stimuli using a VAS to indicate how different the two sounds are.

Complex sound scene comprehension test

Behavioral

The experiment consists in identifying the parameters of the sound timbre that most disturb the understanding of complex sound scenes, by asking the participants to identify sounds whose timbre has been modified.

Complex sound scene comprehension test with hearing aids

Behavioral

The experiment will be identical to intervention 2. This time, the modification of the stimulus timbres will focus on the most problematic dimensional modifications, i.e. those where the difference between normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners is greatest. We will then modify the signal processing parameters of the hearing aid simulator (for example, the size of the averaging window or the gain balance of the filters), to observe their impact on the salience of certain stimuli.

Primary outcomes

  1. Percentage of correct answers in melody comparison tasks in the hearing-impaired group compared with the normal-hearing group,

    Time frame: 3-hours

Secondary outcomes

  1. Characterisation of the dissimilarity between pairs of stimuli measured by a continuous perceptual scale

    Time frame: 3-hours

    Continuous perceptual scale ranging from very dissimilar to very similar

  2. Evaluation of the perceived loudness level of a set of stimuli, measured using scales of magnitude.

    Time frame: 3-hours

    11-point Likert scale

  3. Comparison between the results of speech audiometry in noise, i.e number of words correctly repeated, with native settings versus settings minimising the discomfort of salient sounds for each participant with hearing loss.

    Time frame: up to 24 months

    the comparison will focus on the number of words correctly repeated on the 1st visit (with native settings) versus the last visit (with settings minimising the discomfort)

Study contacts

Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.

Armand Schwarz

CONTACT

[email protected]

Céline Quinsac

CONTACT

[email protected]

0176535029 ext. +33

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Institut Pasteur

Industry

Collaborators

  • Institut de l'Audition

Registry information

Official study title

ÉTude de la pERception soNorE de Personnes maLentendantes équipées d'Aides Auditives

Acronym: ETERNEL

Important dates

Study start
2025
Primary completion
2026
Study completion
2028
First posted
Nov 15, 2024
Registry last updated
Mar 31, 2026

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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