Objective estimation of the listening effort: Towards a neuropsychological and neurophysical model

Abstract

Modern hearing aid fitting could be revolutionized by the availability of objective methods for the listening effort estimation. However experimental and theoretical research dealing with this subject is still in its infancy. In this paper we present first results towards a neuropsychological and neurophysical model for the objective estimation of the listening effort by electroencephalographic data. Our model is based on intended endogenously driven top-down projections represented by corticothalamic feedback dynamics for auditory stream selection and their large-scale correlates in auditory evoked late responses. The predictions of the presented model are compared to experimental data obtained during different auditory tasks which required a graduated effort for their solutions. The experimental data verified the model predictions.It is concluded that the proposed neuropsychological and neurophysical modeling of stream selection provides an appropriate framework for listening effort estimation. The presented preliminary results of an ongoing study are encouraging,however, further focal research is necessary in order to estimate in how far the presented model and future extensions might support modern hearing aid fitting in practice.