Choosing a system and sound processor for you or your child’s individual hearing loss is an important decision that can impact everyday life in fundamental ways. Choosing the right system affects how quickly a child will learn as well as their ability to remember what they hear, while sound processor choice impacts the level of effort needed to understand speech.
Today, we’re excited to share three recent studies that measured the benefit of Direct Sound Transmission and maximum output on learning, remembering and listening effort with the Ponto Bone Anchored Hearing System.
Ponto Evidence #1: Learn Faster
In a recent study conducted by Dr. Andrea Pittman from The Pediatric Amplification Lab at Arizona State University, school-aged children (mean age 11) were fitted with the Power version of the Ponto Bone Anchored Hearing System on a softband and an abutment. These children were tasked with listening and learning six new words. The purpose of this study was to quantify the benefits that children receive from a surgically implanted device compared to wearing the device on a softband.
The results showed that on average, children learned new words 2.5 x faster using a system with Direct Sound Transmission compared to a solution with skin transmission. Direct Sound Transmission systems can provide an extra 10-20 dB of output in the mid to high-frequency range, which contains the most important sound information for speech understanding.
Ponto Evidence #2: Remember more
In a similar study conducted by Professor Thomas Lunner, a senior scientist and research manager at Eriksholm Research Centre in the Denmark, a memory and recall test was performed on participants (mean age 58) who wore the Power version of the Ponto on a softband and abutment. The participants were tasked with recalling specific words after listening to seven sentences.
The result was a 13% relative improvement in recall performance with Direct Sound Transmission vs. skin transmission. With Direct Sound Transmission fewer resources are needed to process sound, more resources and energy are focused remembering.
Ponto Evidence #3: Less effort
In order to measure listening effort objectively, participants were tasked with listening and repeating sentences while an eye-tracking camera monitored their pupil dilation, as a measure of listening effort. These participants (mean age 59) were given sound processors with different maximum outputs like the Ponto Pro, Ponto 3 and Ponto 3 SuperPower (P3SP).
The result was significantly less effort with the Ponto 3 SuperPower as indicated by reduced pupil dilation.
What this means for you, the user
Choosing a system and a sound processor has an impact beyond hearing and can affect everyday activities like learning, remembering and listening. With Direct Sound Transmission and a sound processor with higher maximum output more cognitive resources can be used for understanding, remembering and enjoying life.
We believe in providing patients with the best possible sound quality which is why the Ponto Bone Anchored Hearing System uses Direct Sound Transmission with an abutment and the P3SP is the most powerful abutment-level bone anchored sound processor.
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