W H I T E PA P E R

2022
Oticon More™ new evidence
— Reducing sustained
listening effort

ABSTRACT

This whitepaper presents the results of a clinical study that

investigated the benefits of the key feature in Oticon More™
— MoreSound Intelligence™ (MSI) — in listening effort.

Previously, we have shown that Oticon More via the use of the

intelligence of a Deep Neural Network is able to provide the brain
with clearer sound and a better access to the full sound scene. In
this study, by using a combination of running speech and
advanced pupillometry test methodology to assess listening
effort over time, we show that there is a significant reduction in
sustained listening effort when MSI was on compared to when it
was turned off. These astounding new results suggest that by
effectively providing better access to the full sound scene,
Oticon More helps the brain to work in the optimal way, so the
brain consequently requires less effort to hear and understand.

E D I TO R S O F I SS U E

Reena Murmu Nielsen

Senior Researcher, Centre for Applied Audiology Research, Oticon A/S

Elaine Hoi Ning Ng

Principal Researcher, Centre for Applied Audiology Research, Oticon A/S
PAGE 2 WHITEPAPER – 2022 – PUPILLOMETRY EVIDENCE ON OTICON MORE

Introduction MoreSound Intelligence in Oticon More

Speech in noise for people with hearing loss Conventional hearing aid technology supports
Separating out a speaker that one wants to listen to from communication in complex acoustical environments by
other speakers in a noisy environment is challenging, attenuating noise and creating focus toward the speech
not only for people with hearing loss but also for people by using directionality and noise reduction features.
with normal hearing. For people with hearing loss, However, to have a successful hearing process it requires
listening is compromised, and the brain needs to work full access to the sound environment, so that our brain
hard to understand what is being said in challenging can effectively suppress the irrelevant ones and focus
environments such as restaurants, bars, crowded places, only on the relevant ones as the cognitive resources in
big lecture halls etc. Hearing difficulty in noise can be so our brain are limited (Pass et al., 2010).
great that they may choose to avoid or limit their social
participation altogether (Crews & Campbell, 2004). Oticon More builds on the powerful Polaris™ platform,
Research has shown that there is a link between which is designed to provide access to the full sound
dementia and hearing loss that may be caused partly scene, making it easier for the brain to decode sounds.
due to a limited participation in socially stimulating In this way the brain can better orient, focus, and make
settings (Lin et al., 2011a; Lin et al., 2011b; Loughrey et sense of what is going on in the environment. It was
al., 2018; Livingston et al., 2020). Further, if hearing loss shown by Santurette et al. (2020) that MSI in Oticon More
goes untreated, the social isolation associated with the makes meaningful sounds stand out from the background.
hearing loss can accelerate the cognitive decline leading
to dementia (Lin et al., 2013, Griffiths et al., 2020; Listening effort
Livingston et al., 2020). Therefore, helping people with Listening effort is a specific form of mental effort that
hearing loss to maintain good communication in social is exerted when a task involves listening, as defined in
environments is not only a matter of hearing health but the Framework for Understanding Effortful Listening
also a matter of general well-being. (Pichora-Fuller et al., 2016). In other words, it is the
cognitive resources necessary for speech understanding
In quiet environments, speech is not acoustically mixed (Hicks & Tharpe, 2002).
with other sounds. Hence, listening in a quiet environment
may not be challenging even for people with hearing loss. A common challenge among people with hearing loss
On the other hand, speech in everyday environments are is the effort it takes to listen. They often complain about
acoustically mixed with other interfering sounds. The being “exhausted” or “drained” from listening in noisy
brain uses cognitive processes to focus on the relevant environments. Previous studies reported that even a
information and ignore the rest (Meyer et al., 2016; mild hearing loss could lead to increased listening effort
Pichora-Fuller et al., 2017). This function of effectively (Rabbit, 1991; McCoy et al., 2005). This happens because
separating the relevant speech from irrelevant noise is when hearing is compromised, the auditory system
compromised in people with hearing loss (Dai et al., 2018; becomes more vulnerable to noise and disturbing
Shinn-Cunningham & Best, 2008). Research has shown sounds. The brain needs to work harder to hear in noise,
that to make sense of sound and to navigate our which leads to tiredness and exhaustion. Indeed,
environment and communicate with others, we constantly researchers have found that people with hearing loss
combine our sensory, cognitive, and social abilities (Meyer needed more time at the end of the day to rest and to
et al., 2016; Pichora-Fuller et al., 2017). recover from work (Nachtegaal et al., 2009).

Eye-tracker

Figure 1. Test setup with a total of six loudspeakers, which is identical to the setup used in the Oticon More EEG study
(Santurette et al., 2020). Pupillometry was done by placing an eye-tracker in front of the participants to measure sustained
listening effort. Two frontal loudspeakers (blue and red) contained a male and a female talker reading audio clips
simultanouely. Background noise, which is a 16-talker babble, came from the remaining four loudspeakers.
PAGE 3 WHITEPAPER – 2022 – PUPILLOMETRY EVIDENCE ON OTICON MORE

Real-life listening
Objective listening effort is typically measured using Real-life conversations
pupillometry, which involves continuously recording a
listener’s pupil dilation while performing a listening task require sustained
(Ohlenforst et al., 2017; 2018; Wendt et al., 2017). When
performing a demanding task — such as listening to
attention
speech in noise — an increase in effort is reflected by
the change in the pupil size (Beaty, 1982). The larger window as compared to the shorter 4 to 5-second time
the degree of pupil dilation, the more the listening effort window in the previous studies, this gives us a measure
is thought to be needed for the task. of listening effort that is more representative of the
real-life situations.
In studies investigating listening effort, short sentences
are typically used as speech material in the listening The aim of this study is to measure and compare
task. The participants are usually asked to listen to and sustained listening effort with and without MSI enabled.
repeat aloud sentences presented in noise. Peak pupil In our previous Oticon More EEG study, both EEG and
dilation during the presentation of the sentence-in- pupillometry data were collected at the same time while
noise stimuli (4 to 5 seconds long) is commonly used as the participants were performing a selective listening
a measure of listening effort. However, this may not task. The EEG data were already reported in the Oticon
fully represent real-life listening situations because we whitepaper, Santurette et al. (2020). This whitepaper
often listen to running or continuous speech rather than reports only the pupillometry data. Both sets of data
isolated sentences in everyday conversations. Following were also reported in a peer-reviewed journal (see
a conversation requires paying attention to the talker Andersen et al., 2021).
over a sustained period, which is known as sustained
attention, and staying engaged. To understand the gist Methods
of the conversation, we will also need to react, reflect Seventeen experienced hearing-aid users (mean age
and respond. By assessing the change in pupil dilation 67 years) with a symmetrical, sensorineural hearing
while listening to running speech using a longer time loss ranging from a mild to moderate were included in

Larger pupil
Higher effort
-0.05

MoreSound
Intelligence OFF

-0.1 MoreSound
Pupil size Intelligence ON
change (mm)

Reduced
-0.15 listening effort

Smaller pupil -0.2

Lower effort
0 5 10 15 20 25 Time (sec.)

Figure 2. Change in pupil size with MSI on versus MSI off. The magenta line with MSI on indicates less sustained listening
effort over 30 seconds.
PAGE 4 WHITEPAPER – 2022 – PUPILLOMETRY EVIDENCE ON OTICON MORE

the analysis. Here, pupil size were recorded using an Results

eye-tracker when the participants listened to running Figure 2 shows the change in pupil size with MSI on
speech in the presence of multi-talker babble noise. versus MSI off over the course of 30 seconds. During
This advanced pupillometry test methodology was the first seconds, the difference in effort between the
previously used in a previous study conducted by two conditions is minor. This is believed to be related
researchers from Eriksholm Research Centre (Fiedler et to the initial arousal or effort devoted to focusing on
al., 2021). For running speech, audio news clips that the talker the participants were told to attend to. After
were approximately 30 seconds long were used. The this initial period, we observed a general strong and
test setup (see Figure 1) and the procedure of this study highly consistent decrease in pupil size for the remaining
are identical to what is described in Santurette et al. time window. This reflects less listening effort and
(2020). The audio clips spoken by a male and a female indicates a transition into the listening state such that
talker each came simultaneously from one of the two the pupil size reaches a constant level. Sustained
frontal loudspeakers, with each talker at 73 dB SPL. The attention and engagement into the listening task is
background noise consisted of a 16-talker babble, likely involved in this constant listening state.
presented at 70 dB SPL.
The pupil dilation is significantly smaller with MSI on
The participants were instructed at the beginning of compared to MSI off. What should be noted in Figure 2
each trial which talker to attend to while ignoring the is the magenta line which corresponds to pupil dilation
other talker. We investigated how the pupil dilation over across time with MSI on. It indicates that less effort is
the time range of approximately 30 seconds compared required to listen to speech in noise when MSI is turned
between two conditions: MSI on and off. Twenty trials on compared to when it is turned off, illustrated by the
were administered for each condition. A higher pupil blue line.
dilation is an indication of higher effort allocated to the
listening task. Next, we compared the average percent change in pupil
dilation with MSI on versus off. We found that with MSI
We compared listening effort, indexed by pupil dilation, on there was 30% reduction from the baseline in the
with MSI on versus MSI off in Oticon More in a “real-life average pupil size compared to MSI off (p < 0.001).
like” scenario. We use the term “real-life like” because Figure 3 illustrates this finding, where especially the
in this study we used running speech for a longer bar plot for MSI on should be noted. Here the values are
duration. This is considered to be ecologically more valid more negative meaning that the listening effort is less
and to promote stronger engagement during listening. with MSI on compared to off.

0,00
0 Figure 3 Average pupil size changes
Higher (accumulated over 30 seconds) with
effort MSI on versus MSI off

-0,02
-0.1

-0,04
Accumulated
change in
pupil size
(mm) -0,06
-0.15

-0,08

Lower -30%
effort
-0.2
-0,10
OFF ON
MoreSound Intelligence
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Conclusions
We assessed pupil size as an established measure of Even though the brain is
sustained listening effort (Fiedler et al., 2021). Smaller
pupil dilation (an indication of less listening effort) while getting more sound with
listening to a running speech for a longer duration is
observed with MSI on than MSI off. This suggests better
Oticon More, less effort
sustained attention and engagement when listening is required to listen to
with MSI in Oticon More.
speech in noise, thanks
Previously, we have shown that Oticon More via the use
of the intelligence of a Deep Neural Network is able to
to the groundbreaking
provide the brain with a clearer sound and a better MSI feature.
access to the full sound scene. Approximately 60% more
clearer sound is given to the brain with MSI in Oticon More
(Santurette et al., 2020). Together with the findings of
this clinical study, MSI dramatically reduced sustained
listening effort at the same time as it gives the brain
access to more sound. These findings confirm the new
approach of the BrainHearing technology in Oticon More.
By providing access to the full sound scene, the brain
can better orient, focus and recognize. Oticon More
helps the brain to work in the optimal way, so it
consequently requires less effort to hear, understand,
and participate socially.

Clinical interpretation
We have shown that with MSI, less effort is required to
listen in noise. Less effort during listening over a longer
period means that 1) the brain is using less cognitive
resources to understand speech in challenging
situations such as a restaurant, and 2) the listeners
with hearing loss can more easily react, respond, and
engage in conversations. Even though the brain is
getting more sound with Oticon More, less effort is
required to listen to speech in noise, thanks to the
groundbreaking MSI feature.
PAGE 6 WHITEPAPER – 2022 – PUPILLOMETRY EVIDENCE ON OTICON MORE

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