Exploiting the Potential of Neural Attentional Control to Overcome Hearing Impairment

Launched by UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH · Aug 23, 2022

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is exploring how our brains pay attention to sounds, especially for people with hearing loss, tinnitus (a ringing in the ears), or normal hearing. Researchers want to understand the brain signals that help us focus on specific sounds and see if certain techniques, like non-invasive brain stimulation and biofeedback, can improve this ability. By doing so, they hope to find new ways to help people manage hearing impairments.

If you're aged between 18-35 or 55-75, speak German as your first language, and have normal or corrected vision, you may be eligible to participate. This trial is looking for individuals with different hearing abilities: those with normal hearing (with hearing levels below 20 decibels), those experiencing hearing loss, and those suffering from chronic tinnitus. Participants will undergo safe brain activity monitoring and may receive brain stimulation to see if it helps improve their attention to sounds. It's important to note that certain health conditions or medications may exclude you from participating, so be sure to check the criteria. If you decide to join, you’ll be contributing to vital research that could lead to better solutions for hearing challenges in the future.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Age: 18-35 / 55-75
• • German as first language
• • Normal or corrected to normal vision
• • Right-handed
• • Normal hearing, hearing impairment or tinnitus (see specified inclusion)
• • Normal hearing: ≤20 decibel (dB) hearing level (HL) at frequencies from 250 Hz to 8,000 Hz for both ears.
• Specified inclusion for Experiment 1, 2, 3 \& 4:
• * Hearing loss:
• • bilateral symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss
• • pure tone thresholds of ≥25 dB HL at one or more frequencies between 250 Hz and 8,000 Hz and differences in thresholds across the two ears of ≤20 dB at every frequency.
• * Tinnitus:
• • Persistent chronic tinnitus with duration of more than 3 months
• • Tinnitus with a Tinnitus Handicap Inventory Grade 2 to 4 (18-76 points)
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Non-symmetrical hearing loss
• • Raised bi- or multilingually (second language acquired earlier than 6 years of age)
• • Women who are currently pregnant or breastfeeding
• • History of brain injury or any neurological disorder (y/n)
• • • For example, stroke, traumatic brain injury, brain surgery, epilepsy etc.
• • Dyslexia
• • History of psychiatric disorder
• • Recent recreational drug consumption
• • Known or suspected drug or alcohol abuse
• • Medication with cognitive side effects (e.g., psychoactive medications or sleeping pills)
• • Metallic implants in the head region (excluding fixed braces and tooth fillings)
• • Any implanted medical device (e.g., cardiac pacemakers)
• • Previous enrolment in one of the experiments comprising the main investigational plan