Spatial Hearing Difficulties in Reaching Space in Bilateral Cochlear Implant Children Improve With Head Movements

Coudert, Aurélie; Gaveau, Valérie; Gatel, Julie; Verdelet, Grégoire; Salemme, Roméo; Farnè, Alessandro; Pavani, Francesco; Truy, Éric

doi:10.1097/aud.0000000000001090

Cited by 19 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 67 publications

(121 reference statements)

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“…This result is coherent with previous studies that investigated the benefits of head-movements on front-back discrimination in young adults with normal-hearing (Perrett and Noble, 1997a,b;Iwaya et al, 2003) or with hearing-impairment (Mueller et al, 2014;Brimijoin and Akeroyd, 2016). Similarly, it corroborates the benefit of head-movements for sound localization in front space reported for young adults with normal-hearing (Brimijoin et al, 2013;Morikawa and Hirahara, 2013) or hearing-impairment (Coudert et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Head-movements during sound improve sound localization in normal-hearing adults on both horizontal and vertical dimensions (Perrett and Noble, 1997a ) and reduce front-back discrimination errors (Iwaya et al, 2003 ). In addition, head-movements improve sound localization in hearing-impaired adults (Brimijoin et al, 2012 ) and cochlear implant users (adults: Pastore et al, 2018 ; children: Coudert et al, 2022 ). If head-movements can improve sound localization in the context of ARHL remains, to the best of our knowledge, an open question.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss

Gessa

Giovanelli

Spinella

et al. 2022

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Moving the head while a sound is playing improves its localization in human listeners, in children and adults, with or without hearing problems. It remains to be ascertained if this benefit can also extend to aging adults with hearing-loss, a population in which spatial hearing difficulties are often documented and intervention solutions are scant. Here we examined performance of elderly adults (61–82 years old) with symmetrical or asymmetrical age-related hearing-loss, while they localized sounds with their head fixed or free to move. Using motion-tracking in combination with free-field sound delivery in visual virtual reality, we tested participants in two auditory spatial tasks: front-back discrimination and 3D sound localization in front space. Front-back discrimination was easier for participants with symmetrical compared to asymmetrical hearing-loss, yet both groups reduced their front-back errors when head-movements were allowed. In 3D sound localization, free head-movements reduced errors in the horizontal dimension and in a composite measure that computed errors in 3D space. Errors in 3D space improved for participants with asymmetrical hearing-impairment when the head was free to move. These preliminary findings extend to aging adults with hearing-loss the literature on the advantage of head-movements on sound localization, and suggest that the disparity of auditory cues at the two ears can modulate this benefit. These results point to the possibility of taking advantage of self-regulation strategies and active behavior when promoting spatial hearing skills.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss

Gessa

Giovanelli

Spinella

et al. 2022

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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“…Our VR approach to spatial hearing made it possible to study head movements throughout the experiment and we always presented sounds with long durations (i.e., until response, during the training phase; or 3 seconds long, during the head-pointing task) precisely to examine the contribution of head-movements during training and generalization. Our work adds to the limited body of work that focused on spontaneous head-movements during sound localization relearning [ 46 – 48 , 51 ] by contributing two main findings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Adapting to altered auditory cues: Generalization from manual reaching to head pointing

et al. 2022

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Localising sounds means having the ability to process auditory cues deriving from the interplay among sound waves, the head and the ears. When auditory cues change because of temporary or permanent hearing loss, sound localization becomes difficult and uncertain. The brain can adapt to altered auditory cues throughout life and multisensory training can promote the relearning of spatial hearing skills. Here, we study the training potentials of sound-oriented motor behaviour to test if a training based on manual actions toward sounds can learning effects that generalize to different auditory spatial tasks. We assessed spatial hearing relearning in normal hearing adults with a plugged ear by using visual virtual reality and body motion tracking. Participants performed two auditory tasks that entail explicit and implicit processing of sound position (head-pointing sound localization and audio-visual attention cueing, respectively), before and after having received a spatial training session in which they identified sound position by reaching to auditory sources nearby. Using a crossover design, the effects of the above-mentioned spatial training were compared to a control condition involving the same physical stimuli, but different task demands (i.e., a non-spatial discrimination of amplitude modulations in the sound). According to our findings, spatial hearing in one-ear plugged participants improved more after reaching to sound trainings rather than in the control condition. Training by reaching also modified head-movement behaviour during listening. Crucially, the improvements observed during training generalize also to a different sound localization task, possibly as a consequence of acquired and novel head-movement strategies.

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“…Indeed, in the study by Bahu and colleagues ( 2016 ), despite training the participants to familiarize with the pointing method to the sound sources, participants had difficulty performing the motor task, especially for the rear sound sources. Our ‘simple’ approach is particularly relevant for the eventual aim of applying this same methodology to developmental and clinical populations (for example, this pointing method to sound source has been used without any difficulty with children, (Coudert et al 2022 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most interestingly, SPHERE proved sensitive for detecting and quantifying the contribution of free head motion during sound emission, with improvements to sound localization accuracy and precision. The SPHERE approach has been used recently with adult and pediatric populations, on both normal-hearing participants and cochlear implant patients (Coudert et al 2022 ; Valzolgher, et al 2020a , b , 2020a ; Valzolgher et al 2022 ). It offers a highly versatile opportunity to assess normal and pathological sound localization performance in a more ecologically valid approach (for discussion see Russell 2022 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Benefits of active listening during 3D sound localization

et al. 2022

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In everyday life, sound localization entails more than just the extraction and processing of auditory cues. When determining sound position in three dimensions, the brain also considers the available visual information (e.g., visual cues to sound position) and resolves perceptual ambiguities through active listening behavior (e.g., spontaneous head movements while listening). Here, we examined to what extent spontaneous head movements improve sound localization in 3D—azimuth, elevation, and depth—by comparing static vs. active listening postures. To this aim, we developed a novel approach to sound localization based on sounds delivered in the environment, brought into alignment thanks to a VR system. Our system proved effective for the delivery of sounds at predetermined and repeatable positions in 3D space, without imposing a physically constrained posture, and with minimal training. In addition, it allowed measuring participant behavior (hand, head and eye position) in real time. We report that active listening improved 3D sound localization, primarily by ameliorating accuracy and variability of responses in azimuth and elevation. The more participants made spontaneous head movements, the better was their 3D sound localization performance. Thus, we provide proof of concept of a novel approach to the study of spatial hearing, with potentials for clinical and industrial applications.

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Spatial Hearing Difficulties in Reaching Space in Bilateral Cochlear Implant Children Improve With Head Movements

Abstract: Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text.

Cited by 19 publications

References 67 publications

Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss

Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss

Adapting to altered auditory cues: Generalization from manual reaching to head pointing

Benefits of active listening during 3D sound localization

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