Crosstalk cancellation in bilateral Bone-Conduction Hearing Devices

Barnsley, Ryan 2024. Crosstalk cancellation in bilateral Bone-Conduction Hearing Devices. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

Bone-Conduction Hearing Devices (BCHDs) are hearing devices used in patients with mixed and conductive hearing loss who would otherwise not benefit from traditional hearing aids. These devices are typically implanted into the skull of patients and can bypass the middle and outer ears to deliver sound to patient’s cochleae. Bilateral implantation outperforms unilateral implantation in most audiological measures, however they do not restore hearing to normal levels, in particular sound localisation remains poor. This is due to the limited attenuation of the signal produced from a BCHD as it vibrates around the skull, resulting in a percept at the contralateral cochlea that would be louder than if that same signal traveled around the head through the air, causing interference. The purpose of this thesis is to build on previous work from Mcleod and Culling who demonstrated that the crosstalk produced from one bone transmitter (BT) could be cancelled by a contralateral BT. This thesis addresses three questions. First, to determine whether it is possible to cancel the crosstalk from two BTs simultaneously. Second, to replicate the findings from Mcleod and Culling using BCHD-compatible filters in normal-hearing listeners and patients, and finally, whether the crosstalk-cancellation filters remain effective over time. The first experiment took the crosstalk-cancellation filter design from Mcleod and Culling’s experiments and changed it so that these filters could be used with patient’s BCHDs. These filters were tested in normal-hearing listeners finding that they were effective at cancelling the crosstalk from two BTs simultaneously. This filter-creation method was then repeated in patients, finding that while two patients were able to create effective crosstalk-cancellation filters, the filter’s crosstalk-cancellation efficacy decreased over time. Future work should focus on collecting more patient data and identify the variables causing this filter deterioration.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Psychology
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	7 February 2025
Last Modified:	07 Feb 2025 11:33
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/176020

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