Hearing Aid Audiology & Hearing Assessment Flashcards

In the context of hearing aid fitting, what does 'audibility' refer to?

Answer: The degree to which speech signals are above the patient's threshold

Audibility refers to how much of the speech signal exceeds the patient's hearing thresholds and is therefore perceivable.

A bilateral moderate sensorineural loss patient shows acoustic reflex thresholds at normal sensation levels. What phenomenon does this indicate?

Answer: Loudness recruitment

Loudness recruitment occurs when loudness grows abnormally rapidly with increasing intensity, causing reflexes to occur at normal sensation levels despite elevated thresholds.

Which masking level rule of thumb determines whether masking is needed during air-conduction audiometry?

Answer: Mask when the test ear threshold exceeds the non-test ear bone-conduction threshold by 40 dB (interaural attenuation rule)

When the air-conduction test ear threshold exceeds the non-test ear's bone-conduction threshold by 40 dB (the typical interaural attenuation), cross-hearing may occur and masking is required.

A patient is diagnosed with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD). Which finding is most consistent with this diagnosis?

Answer: Present OAEs with absent or abnormal ABR

ANSD is characterized by present OAEs (normal outer hair cell function) but absent or severely abnormal ABR, indicating dyssynchronous neural function.

Which term describes the condition where hearing thresholds obtained during behavioral testing are significantly worse than the patient's actual organic hearing loss?

Answer: Functional (non-organic) hearing loss

Functional or non-organic hearing loss refers to elevated behavioral thresholds that exceed the patient's true physiologic hearing capacity, potentially due to exaggeration or psychological factors.

What is the significance of the 'corner audiogram' in hearing aid candidacy?

Answer: It shows severe-to-profound loss with residual hearing only in low frequencies, affecting amplification strategy

A corner audiogram reflects profound loss with only residual low-frequency hearing, which challenges traditional amplification and may favor cochlear implant candidacy evaluation.

Which procedure verifies that a hearing aid's output matches prescriptive targets in the patient's own ear canal?

Answer: Real-ear aided response (REAR) measurement

REAR measures the sound pressure level produced by the hearing aid in the patient's ear canal, allowing comparison to prescriptive gain targets.