May, 2007
New Research Questions Industry View on Directionality
Research on the way the human auditory system perceives and prioritises aural cues is set to revolutionise the hearing aid industry.
Hearing aid wearers’ number one complaint has been and continues to be hearing in noise. The advent of adaptive directional microphones has been shown to markedly improve signal-to-noise ratio yet research shows that user satisfaction is no greater now than it was 10 years ago.
Until now hearing instruments have been designed to address only the physical deterioration responsible for hearing loss. Equally important to our ability to hear are the complex decisions made by the human brain, which amounts to an in-built directionality. Hearing instruments responding only to acoustic information, routinely over-ride these decisions, removing the brain’s ability to prioritise input focus. This can create an unnatural hearing experience and tunnel hearing.
The latest international research recommends “asymmetrical fitting”, allowing the wearers in-built directionality to reassert control.
The result?
An adaptive directionality system that never focuses on the wrong thing and the best argument for binaural fittings yet.
Read the below PDF to find out more 
Natural Directionality and Asymmetric
Fittings
(PDF 353K)
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