Computational audiology is a branch of

audiology Audiology (from Latin 'to hear'; and from Ancient Greek, Greek branch of learning , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is a branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Audiologists treat those with hearing loss and proactivel ...

that employs techniques from mathematics and computer science to improve clinical treatments and scientific understanding of the auditory system. Computational audiology is closely related to computational medicine, which uses quantitative models to develop improved methods for general disease diagnosis and treatment.

Overview

In contrast to traditional methods in audiology and hearing science research, computational audiology emphasizes predictive modeling and large-scale analytics ("

big data Big data primarily refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data processing, data-processing application software, software. Data with many entries (rows) offer greater statistical power, while data with ...

") rather than inferential statistics and small-cohort hypothesis testing. The aim of computational audiology is to translate advances in hearing science, data science, information technology, and machine learning to clinical audiological care. Research to understand hearing function and auditory processing in humans as well as relevant animal species represents translatable work that supports this aim. Research and development to implement more effective diagnostics and treatments represent translational work that supports this aim. For people with hearing difficulties,

tinnitus Tinnitus is a condition when a person hears a ringing sound or a different variety of sound when no corresponding external sound is present and other people cannot hear it. Nearly everyone experiences faint "normal tinnitus" in a completely ...

hyperacusis Hyperacusis is an increased Hearing, sensitivity to sound and a low tolerance for environmental noise. Definitions of hyperacusis can vary significantly; it often revolves around damage to or dysfunction of the Stapes, ''stapes'' bone, stapedius ...

, or balance problems, these advances might lead to more precise diagnoses, novel therapies, and advanced rehabilitation options including smart prostheses and

e-Health eHealth describes healthcare services which are supported by digital processes, communication or technology such as electronic prescribing, Telehealth, or Electronic health record, Electronic Health Records (EHRs). The term "eHealth" originated ...

mHealth mHealth (also written as m-health or mhealth) is an abbreviation for mobile health, a term used for the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile devices. The term is most commonly used in reference to using mobile communicatio ...

apps. For care providers, it can provide actionable knowledge and tools for automating part of the clinical pathway. The field is interdisciplinary and includes foundations in

auditory neuroscience Auditory means of or relating to the process of hearing: * Auditory system, the neurological structures and pathways of sound perception ** Auditory bulla, part of auditory system found in mammals other than primates ** Auditory nerve, also known ...

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

signal processing Signal processing is an electrical engineering subfield that focuses on analyzing, modifying and synthesizing ''signals'', such as audio signal processing, sound, image processing, images, Scalar potential, potential fields, Seismic tomograph ...

natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science and especially artificial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with providing computers with the ability to process data encoded in natural language and is thus closely related ...

, otology and vestibulology.

Applications

In computational audiology,

models A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin , . Models can be divided int ...

and

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for per ...

are used to understand the principles that govern the auditory system, to screen for hearing loss, to diagnose hearing disorders, to provide rehabilitation, and to generate simulations for patient education, among others.

Computational models of hearing, speech and auditory perception

For decades, phenomenological & biophysical (computational) models have been developed to simulate characteristics of the human

auditory system The auditory system is the sensory system for the sense of hearing. It includes both the ear, sensory organs (the ears) and the auditory parts of the sensory system. System overview The outer ear funnels sound vibrations to the eardrum, incre ...

. Examples include models of the mechanical properties of the

basilar membrane The basilar membrane is a stiff structural element within the cochlea of the inner ear which separates two liquid-filled tubes that run along the coil of the cochlea, the scala media and the scala tympani. The basilar membrane moves up and down ...

, the electrically stimulated

cochlea The cochlea is the part of the inner ear involved in hearing. It is a spiral-shaped cavity in the bony labyrinth, in humans making 2.75 turns around its axis, the modiolus (cochlea), modiolus. A core component of the cochlea is the organ of Cort ...

, middle ear mechanics, bone conduction, and the central auditory pathway. Saremi et al. (2016) compared 7 contemporary models including parallel filterbanks, cascaded filterbanks, transmission lines and biophysical models. More recently,

convolutional neural network A convolutional neural network (CNN) is a type of feedforward neural network that learns features via filter (or kernel) optimization. This type of deep learning network has been applied to process and make predictions from many different ty ...

s (CNNs) have been constructed and trained that can replicate human auditory function or complex cochlear mechanics with high accuracy. Although inspired by the interconnectivity of biological neural networks, the architecture of CNNs is distinct from the organization of the natural auditory system.

e-Health / mHealth (connected hearing healthcare, wireless- and internet-based services)

Online pure-tone threshold

audiometry Audiometry () is a branch of audiology and the science of measuring hearing acuity for variations in sound intensity and pitch and for tonal purity, involving thresholds and differing frequencies. Typically, audiometric tests determine a subje ...

(or screening) tests, electrophysiological measures, for example distortion-product

otoacoustic emission An otoacoustic emission (OAE) is a sound that is generated from within the inner ear. Having been predicted by Austrian astrophysicist Thomas Gold in 1948, its existence was first demonstrated experimentally by British physicist David Kemp in 19 ...

s (DPOAEs) and speech-in-noise screening tests are becoming increasingly available as a tools to promote awareness and enable accurate early identification of hearing loss across ages, monitor the effects of

ototoxicity Ototoxicity is the property of being toxic to the ear (''oto-''), specifically the cochlea or auditory nerve and sometimes the vestibular system, for example, as a side effect of a drug. The effects of ototoxicity can be reversible and tempora ...

and/or noise, and guide ear and hearing care decisions and provide support to clinicians. Smartphone-based tests have been proposed to detect middle ear fluid using acoustic reflectometry and machine learning. Smartphone attachments have also been designed to perform

tympanometry Tympanometry is an acoustic evaluation of the condition of the middle ear eardrum (tympanic membrane) and the conduction bones by creating variations of air pressure in the ear canal. Tympanometry is an objective test of middle-ear function. It ...

for acoustic evaluation of the

middle ear The middle ear is the portion of the ear medial to the eardrum, and distal to the oval window of the cochlea (of the inner ear). The mammalian middle ear contains three ossicles (malleus, incus, and stapes), which transfer the vibrations ...

eardrum. Low-cost earphones attached to smartphones have also been prototyped to help detect the faint otoacoustic emissions from the cochlea and perform neonatal hearing screening.

Big data and AI in audiology and hearing healthcare

Collecting

large numbers Large numbers, far beyond those encountered in everyday life—such as simple counting or financial transactions—play a crucial role in various domains. These expansive quantities appear prominently in mathematics, cosmology, cryptography, and s ...

of audiograms (e.g. from databases from the

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH, ) is the List of United States federal agencies, United States federal agency responsible for conducting research and making recommendations for the prevention of work-related occ ...

or NIOSH or

National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is a survey research program conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) to assess the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States, and ...

or NHANES) provides researchers with opportunities to find patterns of hearing status in the population or to train AI systems that can classify audiograms.

Machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

can be used to predict the relationship between multiple factors e.g. predict depression based on self-reported hearing loss or the relationship between genetic profile and self-reported hearing loss. Hearing aids and wearables provide the option to monitor the soundscape of the user or log the usage patterns which can be used to automatically recommend settings that are expected to benefit the user.

Computational approaches to improving hearing devices and auditory implants

Methods to improve rehabilitation by auditory implants include improving music perception, models of the electrode-neuron interface, and an AI based

Cochlear Implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted Neuroprosthetics, neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for imp ...

fitting assistant.

Data-based investigations into hearing loss and tinnitus

Online surveys processed with ML-based classification have been used to diagnose somatosensory tinnitus. Automated

Natural Language Processing Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science and especially artificial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with providing computers with the ability to process data encoded in natural language and is thus closely related ...

(NPL) techniques, including unsupervised and supervised Machine Learning have been used to analyze social posts about tinnitus and analyze the heterogeneity of symptoms.

Diagnostics for hearing problems, acoustics to facilitate hearing

Machine learning has been applied to audiometry to create flexible, efficient estimation tools that do not require excessive testing time to determine someone's individual's auditory profile. Similarly, machine learning based versions of other auditory tests including determining dead regions in the cochlea or equal loudness contours, have been created.

e-Research (remote testing, online experiments, new tools and frameworks)

Examples of e-Research tools include including the Remote Testing Wiki, the Portable Automated Rapid Testing (PART), Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) and the NIOSH sound level meter. A number of tools can be found online.

Software and tools

Software and large datasets are important for the development and adoption of computational audiology. As with many scientific computing fields, much of the field of computational audiology existentially depends on open source software and its continual maintenance, development, and advancement.

Related fields

Computational biology Computational biology refers to the use of techniques in computer science, data analysis, mathematical modeling and Computer simulation, computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer sci ...

, computational medicine, and computational pathology are all interdisciplinary approaches to the life sciences that draw from quantitative disciplines such as

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and information science.

External links

Computational Audiology Network

References

{{reflist Audiology Auditory system Computational fields of study Computational science Otology