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About 28.8 million Americans could benefit from hearing aids, according to NIH’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Yet fewer than one in three have ever tried them.

Some people who do try hearing aids are disappointed because they don’t provide the quality of sound they expected.

Now researchers at the University of Maryland’s Hearing Brain Lab are launching a study to find ways to improve people’s experience with hearing aids.

How hearing aids work

Modern hearing aids are “smart” digital devices that can automatically adjust to certain environments, or can be adjusted by the user using their smartphone.

For instance, if you’re in a crowded restaurant, your hearing aids can compensate for the background noise; if you’re watching a movie, they can calibrate themselves (or be calibrated by you) for that environment.

Different hearing aid manufacturers use different programs in their devices.

“Each hearing aid company has a computer program, or algorithm, that handles different environments in a different way,” said Dr. Samira Anderson, director of graduate studies in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at the University of Maryland College Park.

“It can be difficult to predict which particular algorithm is going to work the best,” said Anderson, principal investigator of the study. “We’re trying to come up with an objective way to evaluate them.”

Those evaluations can help both patients and their doctors, Anderson said.

“We’ll have a patient say they don’t like something about the sound quality, but they won’t be able to articulate what they don’t like very well. It’s very hard for the audiologist to address the problem when the patient cannot clearly explain what they don’t like about the sound.”

A one- or two-visit study

Volunteers in the hearing aid study will visit the University of Maryland at College Park once, for a four-hour visit, or twice, if they prefer, for two two-hour visits.

During the first two hours, they’ll take a hearing test and be fitted with three different models of hearing aids.

For the second two hours, they’ll relax in a recliner and watch a movie of their choice. Before the movie begins, researchers will apply painless electrodes to their skin, which will “evaluate how the brain responds to the sounds,” Anderson explained.

“They don’t have to do anything during this second part. They sit in a recliner and select a movie to watch on a large screen,” she said. It’s a pleasant way to spend a few hours.

“I’ve been a pilot tester in a lot of my studies, and I enjoyed it,” she said.

Participants must be over 55 with hearing loss. The study pays $15 per hour, and passes are provided to cover parking fees. Best of all, participants will receive a free hearing test and evaluation.

For more information about this study, or to enroll, call (301) 458-8834 or email mhou0700@umd.edu. Read more about the University of Maryland’s Hearing Brain Lab at hearingbrainlab.com.