中川 誠司

Bone conduction hearing aids (BCHAs) offer an alternative solution for individuals with outer or middle ear issues who cannot benefit from traditional air conduction hearing aids. However, the phenomenon of "crosstalk," where sound intended for one ear is mistakenly transmitted to the other ear through bone conduction, presents a challenge. This unintended transmission may limit the benefits of binaural hearing that can be achieved using two BCHAs, such as accurately detecting a sound source's direction. In this article, we present a method to suppress "crosstalk" within the human head using an adaptive algorithm to control two audiometric bone transducers. •Our method involves positioning an error sensor at a location considered close to the cochlea, such as the ear canal or the mastoid, and utilizing an adaptive algorithm to estimate the crosstalk compensation filter. This filter generates an anti-signal, which is then transmitted to one of the two transducers, effectively cancelling the crosstalk.•To verify whether the crosstalk cancellation reaches the cochlea in the inner ear, we provide a procedure for measuring hearing thresholds with and without crosstalk cancellation. This acts as a subjective measure of the efficacy of our crosstalk cancellation method. By leveraging an adaptive algorithm, this approach provides personalized cancellation and has the potential to enhance the performance of binaural BCHAs.

This study aimed to address the issue of "crosstalk" in bone conduction hearing aids, where sound meant for one ear is mistakenly perceived by the other ear via bone conduction. We explored a potential solution by canceling the crosstalk sound at the cochlea. To achieve this, an accelerometer was placed on the mastoid to monitor the crosstalk sound produced by an audiometric bone transducer on the opposite side of the head, while a second transducer on the same side as the accelerometer was used to cancel it out. The filtered-x least mean square (FxLMS) algorithm was used to optimize the crosstalk compensation (CTC) filter for cancellation at the mastoid. Then, the subjects manually adjusted the filter coefficients through a lateralization task to achieve crosstalk cancellation at the cochlea. This task involved modifying phase and level differences between pure-tone sounds from the two transducers, making the sound seem to originate from the leftmost or rightmost side of the head. Our results indicated successful cancellation of crosstalk sound at the cochlea, as subjects' hearing thresholds under noise masking were lower with crosstalk cancellation.

The impressions of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) sounds are important for the comfort people experience in their living spaces. Revealing neural substrates of the impressions induced by HVAC sounds can help to develop neurophysiological indices of the comfort of HVAC sounds. There have been numerous studies on the brain activities associated with the pleasantness of sounds, but few on the brain activities associated with the thermal impressions of HVAC sounds. Seven time-varying HVAC sounds were synthesized as stimuli using amplitude modulation. Six participants took part in subjective evaluation tests and MEG measurements. Subjective coolness of the HVAC sounds was measured using the paired comparison method. Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) measurements were carried out while participants listened to and compared the time-varying HVAC sounds. Time-frequency analysis and cluster-based analysis were performed on the MEG data. The subjective evaluation tests showed that the subjective coolness of the amplitude-modulated HVAC sounds was affected by the modulation frequency, and that there was individual difference in subjective coolness. A cluster-based analysis of the MEG data revealed that the brain activities of two participants significantly differed when they listened to cooler or less cool HVAC sounds. The frontal low-theta (4–5 Hz) and the temporal alpha (8–13 Hz) activities were observed. The frontal low-theta and the temporal alpha activities may be associated with the coolness of HVAC sound. This result suggests that the comfort level of HVAC sound can be evaluated and individually designed using neurophysiological measurements.