A team of researchers at the Ear Institute, University College London has found that the sound-processing algorithms used in hearing aids can degrade the ability of hearing-impaired people to discriminate sounds. In their paper published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, the group describes their study of hearing aids using brain probes in gerbils. John Middlebrooks, with the University of California at Irvine has published a News & Views piece outlining the known problems with modern hearing aids and the work done by the team in England.