ClinicalTrials.gg
Enrolling by invitationNCT06049199Updated Dec 4, 2023

Effect of Speech Enhancer on Listening Effort With EEG

An interventional study of Speech Enhancer in Listening Effort, sponsored by Sonova AG. Enrolling by invitation at 1 site in Germany. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-12-04.

Sponsored by Sonova AG · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Dec 2023, 2 years 10 months ago, but the record still lists the study as enrolling by invitation.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
27
Allocation
Not applicable
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

In previous studies, Speech Enhancer has been shown to improve Listening Effort using a subjective method. To overcome the weakness of subjective testing, this study uses an objective measurement that has shown convincing results in previous studies addressing Listening Effort.

Read the detailed description

The Speech Enhancer (SE) provides better speech intelligibility for soft speech while maintaining the same sound quality for loud input level.

Better speech intelligibility may also result in less listening effort in some circumstances. So there was the hope that the SE provides better speech intelligibility and less listening effort for situation with soft speech.

The SE has already been intensely and successfully investigated in early studies.

The cognitive performance on a neurophiosiological level has already been successfully investigated in a previous studies.

02

Conditions studied

  • Listening Effort
03

In context

Lead sponsor

Sonova AG is the lead sponsor of 89 studies on the registry; 6 are open to participants now.

Of its 27 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 19 (70%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.

Inclusion criteria

  • Experienced (minimum use duration 6 months)
  • Adult (minimum age: 18 years) hearing aid users,
  • Symmetrical hearing loss (difference between ears \<= 10 dB for 1kHz-6kHz),
  • Sensorineural hearing loss,
  • Air Conduction - bone conduction gap \<= 10 dB,
  • Written and spoken German,
  • Ability to understand instruction,
  • Ability to describe listening experiences,
  • Ability to attend to the appointments,
  • Healthy outer ear (without previous surgical proce-dures),
  • Hearing loss within the fitting ranges of the investiga-tional product,
  • as documented by signature.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Clinical deformity of the ear (closed ear canal or absence of pinna),
  • Known or allergy,
  • Not willing to wear the hearing aid,
  • Fluctuating hearing that could influence the results,
  • Limited mobility and not in the position to attend all appointments,
  • Inability to produce a reliable hearing test result,
  • Massively limited dexterity,
  • Known psychological problems,
  • Known central hearing disorders.
Terms in these criteria, in plain language(3)

Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.

Informed consent

Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.

You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.

Contraindication

A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.

Hypersensitivity

An allergy, or another reaction of the immune system, to a substance. “Hypersensitivity to the study drug” means a known allergic reaction to it — not every side effect a medicine can have.

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
27 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Hearing impaired group

    The hearing impaired group will compare the reference condition (SpeechEnhancer on) with the intervention condition (SpeechEnhancer off).

    Other: Speech Enhancer

Interventions

  • OtherSpeech Enhancer

    Speech Enhancer is an adaptive feature which increases the amplitude of speech signal when speech is detected. Speech Enhancer will be switched on and off for the Intervention

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. EEG alpha power measured during Listening Effort Task (LET)

    During the LET experiment EEG data will be recorded while participants perform the Adaptive CAtegorical Listening Effort (ACALES). Participants will be equipped with an EEG cap. A continuous EEG will be recorded while participants are performing the LET. Based on the EEG data the alpha power will be analysed offline afterwards.

    Time frame: 10 weeks

Secondary outcomes

  1. EEG alpha power measured during Listening Span Task (LST)

    During the LST experiment EEG data will be recorded while participants perform the Working Memory Test. Participants will be equipped with an EEG cap. A continuous EEG will be recorded while participants are performing the LST. Based on the EEG data the alpha power will be analysed offline afterwards.

    Time frame: 10 weeks

  2. Listening effort (ACALES) measured during Listening Effort Task (LET)

    The speech material of the ACALES is based on the German OLSA sentence matrix test. All sentences are syntactically identical and consist of five word categories (name, verb, number, adjective, and object, e.g., "Peter kauft fünf rote Blumen" \[engl. "Peter buys five red flowers"\]). Each trial consists of a sequence of three (different) sentences, after which participants are asked to rate their perceived listening effort on a scale via touch screen. The scale ranges from 1 (no effort) to 13 (extreme effort) based on the ACALES. These values (effort scaling units - ESCU) constitute the subjective behavioral data regarding the personal experience of listening effort. The ACALES is part of the LET experiment and is therefore combined with EEG recordings (see outcome 1).

    Time frame: 10 weeks

  3. Working memory measured with Listening Span Task (LST)

    The material in the LST task is taken from the Basler sentence test. Half of the sentences are high predictable sentences (HP) and the other half were low predictable (LP) sentences. The participants' task is to repeat the sentence they hear and remember the last word of each sentence. After four sentences, the participants is asked to recall the final words of the last four sentences. The experimenter scores the number of correctly repeated final words after each sentence (words recognized) as well as the number of correctly recalled final words (words remembered). Based on this, a relative memory score is calculated. The Working Memory Test is part of the LST and is therefore combined with EEG recordings (see outcome 2).

    Time frame: 10 weeks

07

Study locations

1 site
  • Hörzentrum Oldenburg
    Oldenburg, Niedersachsen 26129, Germany
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Wagener, K. B. (1999). Development and evaluation of a German sentence test Part II: Optimization of the Oldenburg sentence test. . Zeitschrift Fur Audiologie,, 38, 44-56.
  • Krueger M, Schulte M, Brand T, Holube I. Development of an adaptive scaling method for subjective listening effort. J Acoust Soc Am. 2017 Jun;141(6):4680. doi: 10.1121/1.4986938. PubMed 28679238 ↗
  • Tschopp K, I. L. (1992). Die Entwicklung einer deutschen Version des SPIN-Tests (Speech Perception in Noise). In: B. Kollmeier (Hrsg): Moderne Ver-fahren der Sprachaudiometrie. . Heidelberg, Median-Verlag,, 311-329.

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Timeline

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
ElapsedEstimatedEstimated, not yet reached

Started Oct 2023 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2023, 2 months after the start.

How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.

Registered
Aug 29, 2023
First posted
Sep 22, 2023
StartActual
Oct 16, 2023
Primary completionEst.
Dec 22, 2023
CompletionEst.
Mar 31, 2024
Last update
Dec 4, 2023
What these dates mean
Start.
When the first participant enrolled; while estimated, when the study expects to open to recruitment.
Primary completion.
When the last participant was examined or treated to collect data for the study's main question, its primary outcome. A study that stopped early gives the date its data collection stopped.
Completion.
When the last participant's last visit took place, for every outcome, secondary ones and side effects included: the end of the study. Often later than primary completion, sometimes the same day.
Actual and Est.
Actual means the registry says the date has happened. Est. (estimated) is a date the sponsor plans or expects. It can still move, and the sponsor is expected to change it to actual once it has passed.
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Dec 4, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
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Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT06049199
Lead sponsor
Sonova AG
Collaborators
Hoerzentrum Oldenburg
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Sep 22, 2023
Start date
Oct 16, 2023
Primary completion
Dec 22, 2023 (estimated)
Completion
Mar 31, 2024 (estimated)
Last update
Dec 4, 2023

Study contacts

Matthias Vormann
principal investigator · Hörzentrum Oldeburg

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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