Hearing aids are the only available treatment for mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss, but often fail to improve perception in difficult listening conditions. To identify the reasons for this failure, we studied the underlying neural code using large-scale single-neuron recordings in gerbils, a common animal model of human hearing. We found that a hearing aid restored the sensitivity of neural responses, but failed to restore their selectivity. The low selectivity of aided responses was not a direct effect of hearing loss per se, but rather a consequence of the strategies used by hearing aids to restore sensitivity: compression, which decreases the spectral and temporal contrast of incoming sounds, and amplification, which produces high intensities that distort the neural code even with normal hearing. To improve future hearing aids, new processing strategies that avoid this tradeoff between neural sensitivity and selectivity must be developed.

中文翻译：

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助听器的困境：神经代码的放大，压缩和失真

助听器是轻度至中度感音神经性听力损失的唯一可用治疗方法，但在困难的聆听条件下通常无法改善感知能力。为了确定这种失败的原因，我们使用了沙土鼠（人类听觉的一种常见动物模型）中的大规模单神经元录音研究了潜在的神经代码。我们发现助听器恢复了神经反应的敏感性，但未能恢复其选择性。辅助响应的低选择性本身并不是听力损失的直接影响，而是助听器用来恢复灵敏度的策略的结果：压缩会降低传入声音的频谱和时间对比度，而放大会产生强度高，即使在正常听觉下也会扭曲神经编码。为了改善未来的助听器，