Speech Recognition Performance of Listeners with Normal Hearing, Sensorineural Hearing Loss, and Sensorineural Hearing Loss and Bothersome Tinnitus when Using Air and Bone Conduction Communication Headsets

Military personnel are at risk for hearing loss due to noise exposure during deployment (Norin et al., 2011). Despite mandated use of hearing protection, hearing loss and tinnitus are prevalent due to reluctance to use hearing protection. Bone conduction (BC) headsets can offer good speech intelligibility for normal hearing (NH) listeners while allowing the ears to remain open in quiet environments and the use of hearing protection when needed. Tinnitus sufferers often show degraded speech recognition; however, it is unclear whether this is a result of decreased hearing sensitivity or increased distractibility. It has been suggested that vibratory stimulation of BC might ameliorate tinnitus; however, there is currently no research to support or refute this claim (Hoare, et al., 2014). Speech recognition of words presented over AC and BC headsets was measured for three groups of listeners: NH, sensorineural hearing impaired, and/or tinnitus sufferers. Three levels of speech-to-noise (SNR = 0,−6,−12) were created by embedding speech items in pink noise. Better speech recognition performance was observed with the BC headset regardless of hearing profile and speech intelligibility was a function of SNR. Discussion will include study limitations and the implications of these findings for those serving in the military.