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Why hearing aids are impaired

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An analysis of the neural coding of speech sounds in anaesthetized gerbils shows that sound-processing algorithms used by hearing aids can degrade the wearer’s ability to discriminate sounds.

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Fig. 1: Sound compression in hearing aids impairs the discrimination of speech sounds.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Otolaryngology, Neurobiology & Behavior, Cognitive Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    John C. Middlebrooks

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  1. John C. Middlebrooks
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Correspondence to John C. Middlebrooks.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Middlebrooks, J.C. Why hearing aids are impaired. Nat. Biomed. Eng 6, 679–680 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-021-00714-z

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