TNT - Tracking of Noise Tolerance
The Tracking of Noise Tolerance (TNT) test was designed to measure how much noise an individual can tolerate while still understanding 90% of speech. The test requires the patient to adjust noise levels while listening to a passage presented at a high level (75-85 dB SPL) for two minutes.
Our research shows that the higher the tolerable noise level (TNL), the more likely will the listener be satisfied with his/her hearing aids in real-life noisy situations.
TNT

The TNT is a reliable and efficient clinical test that allows measurement of a hearing-impaired listener’s tolerance for noise — with and without hearing aids — so that the results can be compared to normal-hearing listeners, among various hearing aid features, and on the same individual over time. This tool may also be useful for estimating potential satisfaction of the fitted hearing aids in real-life noisy environments.

The TNT test is a computerized, automatic test that simplifies the process of measuring “tolerable” noise while ensuring the reliability of the measured results. The test does not require the measurement of individual MCLs; rather, based on ecological consideration, a fixed speech passage at 75 or 85 dB SPL is used to approximate the speech level in loud background noise. The purpose of the test is to track the listener’s tolerable noise level (TNL)—defined as the loudest noise level that the listener is able and willing to “put up with” without sacrificing speech understanding—over a 2-minute period. The test has within-session, test-retest reliability of 2 dB and a between-session reliability of 4 dB.

SCREENSHOT
The noise tolerance can be compared to normative data in real-time.

Interested? Contact ORCA-US to request a copy of the TNT
PUBLICATIONS

Seper E, Kuk F, Korhonen P, Slugocki C. (2019) Tracking of noise tolerance to predict hearing aid satisfaction in loud noisy environments. J Am Acad Audiol. 30:302–314. LINK:Abstract

Kuk F, Korhonen P. (2018) Using Tracking of Noise Tolerance (TNT) as an outcome measure for hearing aids. Hearing Review. 25:16–23. LINK:Full text

Kuk F, Seper E, Lau C-C, Korhonen P. (2017) Tracking of Noise Tolerance to measure hearing aid benefit. J Am Acad Audiol. 28:698–707. LINK:Abstract