HearMus Seminars – Hearing Aids for Music

The HearMus seminar series provides a monthly forum for the discussion of a broad array of topics around music and hearing health. The series aims to yield a state of the art of research on music perception and hearing impairment, hearing aids and music, and individual differences in music perception and production. Besides presentations from experts in academia and industry, the seminar series seeks to foster lively discussions and exchange of ideas, with the joint goal of sustaining and enhancing access to music for people with diverse hearing needs.

Seminar leaders: Prof. Alinka Greasley, Prof. Kai Siedenburg

The seminar dates are listed below with Zoom links.

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MARCH SPEAKERS

HearMus Seminar 6 (March 25.03.25) 14:00-16:00 GMT (15:00-17:00 CET)

Music and hearing loss across the lifespan: transfer effects to support speech-in-noise perception

Dr Chi Lo, Postdoctoral Fellow, Macquarie University, Honorary Research Fellow, Australian Institute of Health Innovation

Speech perception in noisy environments remains a critical challenge for individuals with hearing loss. Recent evidence suggests that music processing skills and training can facilitate improvements in auditory perception. In this presentation, the findings from two music intervention studies (paediatric and geriatric) will be discussed and consolidated.

In the first study, 39 older adult hearing aid users (aged 57–90) were assigned to a 14-week, three-arm intervention (choir singing, music appreciation, and do-nothing control). Results revealed that participants assigned to the music groups had enhanced speech-in-noise perception as well as frequency following responses after the intervention.

The second study involved 14 children (aged 6–9) with prelingual sensorineural hearing loss that used cochlear implants, and/or hearing aids. Participation involved a 12‐week intervention incorporating weekly group‐based music therapy, supplemented with a take-home music app. Compared with an age‐matched typical hearing cohort, the children with hearing loss showed a significant improvement for SIN perception which was mechanistically linked to better timbre and spectral resolution perception.

Collectively, these findings highlight the potential of music‐based interventions as a complementary rehabilitation strategy. They suggest that structured music training may play critical roles in enhancing auditory outcomes across the lifespan.

Balancing auditory stimulation and noise exposure: Lessons from private and NHS audiology

Dr Alan Sanderson, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, UK

Dr Sanderson is a Clinical Lecturer in Audiology. In parallel to his research on tinnitus and hearing devices, Alan works in NHS and private clinical audiology. At the HearMus seminar, Alan will share how he and Conor O’Kane, an audiologist and classically trained pianist, set up an audiology service to optimise and protect hearing for patients that love music. The talk will use clinical case examples to draw out patterns that we can use to improve and standardise clinical protocols for people that play and/or listen to music.

Alinka Greasley is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: HearMus Seminar 6 (25.03.25)

Time: Mar 25, 2025 14:00-16:00 GMT (15:00-17:00 CET)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://universityofleeds.zoom.us/j/81935189643

Meeting ID: 819 3518 9643

Previous seminars

HearMus Seminar 5 (20.02.25)

Making music more accessible for cochlear implant users

Professor Waldo Nogueira, Hannover Medical School, Germany

Music is vital in our lives, connecting people emotionally and culturally. However, cochlear implants, designed to restore speech, often fail to help users enjoy music. This presentation reports on outcomes of the Music4u project which aims to change this by developing technology to improve music perception for cochlear implant users. This involves creating new signal processing algorithms to enhance music enjoyment and personalizing it based on individual hearing performance and brain signals. The goal is to improve users’ quality of life by making music more accessible.

1^st Cadenza Machine Learning Challenge for Music and Hearing Loss: Listener Evaluation Data

Dr Scott Bannister, University of Leeds, UK

The Cadenza Project (https://cadenzachallenge.org/) aims to improve music listening experiences for people with a hearing loss, through machine learning challenges and perceptual studies. The 1^st Cadenza Challenge (CAD1) tasked entrants with improving music audio quality for people with hearing loss, listening to music unaided and over headphones. Entrant systems were assessed via an objective metric, and subjectively evaluated by a Listener Panel of hearing aid users. This talk aims to summarise recent sensory evaluation work to understand attributes of music audio quality from the perspectives of hearing loss, and to present Listener Panel evaluation data for CAD1. Findings will be discussed in relation to music listening difficulties experienced through hearing loss, and next steps in the Cadenza Project will be outlined.

Watch Seminar 5 here: < video coming soon >

HearMus Seminar 4 (22.01.25)

Benefits of Online Music Training for Cochlear Implant Recipients

Johanna Boyer, MED-EL

Music enjoyment is of importance for many cochlear implant users and the interest in music training is high, but many cochlear implant users report that it is a challenge to find suitable training resources and stall because they don’t know how to practice. Meludia is an online music training program that provides structured and guided music training for musically experienced and inexperienced children and adults, which is designed to enable them to be successful. The program has great potential because it is offered in 23 different languages and therefore can be used globally; it is easily accessible and convenient to use because it allows for an individual schedule; and because it is such a comprehensive music training tool, it gives users the chance to work on individual goals regardless of their present abilities. In this presentation I will share recent research findings demonstrating benefits for music, speech and quality of life.

New generations of auditory training & testing for hearing impaired users

Bastien Sannac Cunningham, Meludia

Initially developed for individuals with normal hearing, the Meludia platform was designed as a tool for auditory and musical training. Over time, however, it attracted interest from ENT specialists, audiologists and researchers due to its design, usability and accessibility.

Building on this foundation, we are now developing audiology tests that can be completed at home. These tests aim to provide audiologists with valuable data to better assess their patients’ auditory profiles and recommend rehabilitation strategies. Meludia apps use musical extracts as stimuli, offering an engaging and effective medium for testing and training. In January 2025, we are releasing the first of these tests: the Intensity Perception Test, designed to assess and refine how patients perceive variations in sound intensity. Later this year, we plan to introduce targeted rehabilitation exercises focusing on intensity perception, as well as additional dimensions of auditory processing in 2026.

Our first pilot study is about to start in France with a network of audiologists. This study will evaluate the usability of the platform and the potential for integrating these tools into clinical practice. Though still at an early stage, we aim to understand how these tools can complement in-clinic adjustments and enhance the patient journey.

Looking forward in several years, our ambition is to establish Meludia as a certified medical device and a robust platform for researchers. We hope it will become a valuable tool for audiologists, enabling them to offer more precise and personalized care while advancing our collective understanding of auditory rehabilitation.

Watch Seminar 4 here:

HearMus Seminar 3 (18.12.24)

Multisensory technologies for hearing health

Prof. Stefania Serafin (Aalborg University), with Dr Razvan Paisa and Francesco Ganis

In this talk we will present some of the research projects that we are running at our Multisensory Experience Lab at Aalborg University. In collaboration with Copenhagen Hearing and Balance Center, part of Rigshospitalet, and the Royal Danish Academy of Music, we are developing technologies to help individuals with diverse hearing abilities to appreciate music. All the developed solutions use several forms of multisensory technologies, from virtual and augmented reality to haptic feedback, to augment or substitute hearing abilities. The ultimate goal is to enhance the overall musical experience.

Rehabilitative effects of musical training for participants with hearing loss: completed and prospective studies

Dr Ellie Harding (University of Groningen)

Musical training has the potential to hone auditory and motor networks in the brain, while at the same time being fun, engaging, and stimulating social interaction. In Groningen, we are implementing musical training in multifaceted ways for populations with hearing loss. First, I will describe a study with adult cochlear implant (CI) users, a population whose functional deafness has been restored by an implanted device that replaces acoustic hearing with a lower quality electric hearing. Then I will share plans of our new study for older adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss, either untreated or treated with hearing aids. In both studies, music is intended as a vehicle to stimulate beneficial neuroplasticity.

Watch Seminar 3 here:

HearMus Seminar 2 (26.11.24)

Musical scene analysis of listeners with diverse hearing profiles: an update

Prof. Kai Siedenburg, Graz University of Technology

Auditory perception does not supply a direct image of the acoustical world, but it constructs auditory images by means of organizing principles that are collectively referred to as Auditory Scene Analysis (ASA). Diverse forms of hearing impairments are shown to have detrimental effects on ASA, which arguably takes its largest toll in the form of impaired speech intelligibility in noisy environments. In recent work of my team, we have shown that hearing impairments similarly degrade musical scene analysis (MSA). This talk will give an overview of these studies using excerpts of realistic classical music, popular music, or artificially constructed examples. The MSA tasks typically tested the ability to hear out target sounds in multi-instrument musical mixtures (e.g., “Was the target sound in the mix? Yes/No”). Surprisingly, several drastic acoustical manipulations of multi-track mixes (e.g., spatial separation, spectral filtering, hearing aid compression) showed little effect on MSA tasks, but acoustical manipulations were clearly distinguishable in terms of audio quality ratings. This disparity suggests a multifaceted approach to portraying listening abilities and preferences of listeners with diverse hearing profiles.

Barriers and facilitators to providing audiology services for musicians: perspectives from UK audiologists

Dr Samuel Couth, University of Manchester

Hearing disorders can threaten musicians’ performance abilities, impact their professional attainment and personal enjoyment, and can lead to a loss of profession. Therefore, it is vital that musicians take care of their hearing to ensure career longevity and general wellbeing. Audiologists are trained to prevent, diagnose and treat hearing problems and are essential in supporting the ongoing hearing health of musicians. However, it is not clear whether audiologists are equipped to address the conservation and rehabilitation needs of musicians; limited research shows that whilst some are confident in their ability, others report a lack of confidence or even reluctance to provide services for musicians. This talk describes the results of a recent mixed-methods study which sought to understand the current practice of audiologists delivering services for musicians within the UK, and to use the Capabilities, Opportunities, Motivations and Behaviour (COM-B) model to help understand the barriers audiologists face in providing effective and high-quality audiological care for musicians. Key findings from both survey and interview data will be outlined, along with a summary of the main barriers and facilitators that provide essential insights for developing behaviour change interventions.

Watch Seminar 2 here:

HearMus Seminar 1 (21.10.24)

Hearing Aids for Music (HAfM) project update

Prof. Alinka Greasley (University of Leeds)

Listening to and performing music with hearing aids can be challenging. Whilst hearing aids increase audibility and help with hearing out musical elements, users often experience poor sound quality, distortion and difficulties with dynamics, particularly in live music contexts. The Hearing Aids for Music project mapped the prevalence of problems experienced by hearing aid users and identified strategies to help improve access to and enjoyment of music. This talk will summarise the project findings and their implications for key stakeholders (e.g. musicians, audiologists, manufacturers), and describe how results are informing current projects (e.g. Cadenza, Aural Diversity) and ongoing impact & PPIE work.

Hearing aid evaluation for music: Accounting for acoustical variability of music stimuli

Christophe Lesimple (Sonova)

Music is an important signal class for hearing aids, and musical genre is often used as a descriptor for stimulus selection. However, little research has systematically investigated the acoustical properties of musical genres with respect to hearing aid amplification. Two comprehensive music databases were acoustically analyzed where considerable overlap in acoustic descriptor space between genres emerged. Simulating hearing aid processing on these samples has shown that effects of amplification regarding dynamic range compression and spectral weighting differed across musical genres, underlining the critical role of systematic stimulus selection for research on music and hearing aids. Practical application, like how to include samples as random effect in listening experiment for the statistical analysis, will be presented and discussed.

Watch the first Seminar 1 back here:

MARCH