The right ear advantage in noise
Reviewed by Yovina Khiroya-Morjaria

Relatively little is known about the right ear advantage, particularly in noise. The speech-in-noise performances were assessed in a group of 37 participants with normal hearing via a Matrix Test. Participants were tested binaurally, in a right-ear condition and a left-ear condition. In monaural conditions the noise was presented in the ipsilateral ear. Results revealed the lowest SNR was required in the binaural condition. In the monaural conditions, a statistically significantly lower SNR was required to understand speech in the right ear compared to the left ear. These results indicate that binaural aiding is always most advantageous. However, in cases of symmetrical hearing loss where only one aid is being fitted, the right ear may provide better speech-in-noise understanding.

The right ear advantage - a perspective from speech perception in noise test.
Sendesen E, Colak H, Korkut Y, et al.
HEAR BAL COMMUN
2023;21(4):269–74.