Effects of Cognitive load and Eye status on Pure-Tone Audiometry in Normal hearing and Hearing impairment

Abstract

Lay abstract Performing two tasks simultaneously can cause overload in the brain, also known as a cognitive load (CL). Hereby, the performance of both tasks’ is reduced in comparison to the performance of a single task; for example, reading a book and simultaneously listening to a piece of news on the radio, the load usually impacts the listening performance. In contrast, people tend to close their eyes spontaneously when facing a difficult task to focus and make all visual distractions disappear. Objective: This proposed research study aims to investigate the effects of CL and eyes open or closed on a hearing test (tone signal) in normal hearing and hearing loss subjects. Method: Three groups of participants will be tested, namely adults with normal hearing, mild and moderate sensorineural hearing loss, aged between 18 to 40 years. The total sample size is expected to be 111 subjects, so 37 participants for each group. The experiment involving six conditions; each subject will perform them on one occasion by undergoing the Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA) hearing test and adding a concurrent task. Firstly, the PTA test will be done to establish the hearing level; condition one will be performing the PTA with eyes open; condition two, the PTA+ and looking at a simple portrait. Thirdly, the PTA with eyes closed. Fourthly, the PTA+ CL task, e.g., a visual task that presents meaningless words and the participants’ response will be to press the “Yes” button if the presented word matches the stimulus introduced two words earlier; if not, then press “No”. Last condition will be a repeat of the first condition. For the PTA test, participants need to press a handheld button once they hear a tone. 35 This research finding could suggest slightly different approaches for standard healthcare procedures for more accurate PTA results.