What can only be achieved with binaural hearing aid fitting?

Precise sound localization: The sounds received by both ears have physical differences. After the brain integrates and analyzes the time difference, intensity difference, and phase difference, the sound source can be located. This allows us to navigate complex environments outdoors and avoid danger in a timely manner.

Eliminating the head shadow effect: The head acts as an obstacle, causing a difference in sound intensity when sound waves reach the two ears. When the sound source is on one side, the ear closer to the sound source receives sound waves directly, resulting in higher intensity; the other ear is blocked by the head and can only receive diffracted or reflected sound waves, resulting in significantly lower intensity. This intensity difference is more significant for high-frequency sounds (such as female speech and consonants "s" and "sh"), and less significant for low-frequency sounds. Therefore, wearing hearing aids in both ears can eliminate the head shadow effect.

Focusing on target sounds and improving speech intelligibility: The brain analyzes the sound signals from both ears, distinguishes speech from background noise, focuses on the target sound, and filters out interfering noise. At the same time, the sound information received by both ears is more complete, allowing the capture of soft sounds that are easily missed by a single ear. These soft sounds are crucial for understanding detailed semantics and can improve speech intelligibility.

Preventing auditory deprivation: If hearing aids are worn in only one ear for a long time, the unaided ear will gradually lose its speech recognition ability due to lack of sound stimulation, leading to further hearing deterioration. Binaural fitting maintains the balance of auditory function in both ears and protects remaining hearing.

Reducing auditory fatigue: Both ears share the sound processing task, reducing the pressure of long-term overload on a single ear.

Suppressing tinnitus:

Reducing the proportion of abnormal signals: After damage to the inner ear hair cells or auditory nerve, abnormal electrical signals are generated (a major source of tinnitus). Binaural hearing aids amplify ambient sounds, gently stimulating the damaged auditory pathway, allowing the auditory nerve to receive "normal and useful signals," reducing the proportion of abnormal signals, and simultaneously masking the tinnitus sound through sound masking, reducing its perceptibility.

Inhibiting abnormal neuronal firing: Tinnitus is closely related to abnormal neuronal firing in the brain's auditory center. Synchronous sound input to both ears activates the bilateral auditory pathways of the brain, regulating the firing rhythm of nerve cells, inhibiting abnormal firing, and weakening the neural signals of tinnitus at the source. Easier listening: When wearing only one earbud, the brain has to work harder to process the sound from one side, which can easily lead to auditory fatigue. Fatigue and anxiety can worsen tinnitus. Wearing earbuds in both ears distributes the auditory load, making listening easier, reducing fatigue and anxiety, and indirectly alleviating the worsening of tinnitus caused by these factors.