Trade-Off in the Sound Localization Abilities of Early Blind Individuals between the Horizontal and Vertical Planes

Voss, Patrice; Tabry, Vanessa; Zatorre, Robert J.

doi:10.1523/jneurosci.4544-14.2015

Cited by 52 publications

(74 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Blind individuals are impaired in complex skills such as sound localization in the mid-sagittal plane (Zwiers et al, 2001; Lewald, 2002; Voss et al, 2015) and tasks requiring a metric representation of the auditory space (Gori et al, 2014; Finocchietti et al, 2015). This impaired audio space perception in blind individuals can hamper the compensation during navigation provided by audition in the absence of vision.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shape Perception and Navigation in Blind Adults

et al. 2017

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Different sensory systems interact to generate a representation of space and to navigate. Vision plays a critical role in the representation of space development. During navigation, vision is integrated with auditory and mobility cues. In blind individuals, visual experience is not available and navigation therefore lacks this important sensory signal. In blind individuals, compensatory mechanisms can be adopted to improve spatial and navigation skills. On the other hand, the limitations of these compensatory mechanisms are not completely clear. Both enhanced and impaired reliance on auditory cues in blind individuals have been reported. Here, we develop a new paradigm to test both auditory perception and navigation skills in blind and sighted individuals and to investigate the effect that visual experience has on the ability to reproduce simple and complex paths. During the navigation task, early blind, late blind and sighted individuals were required first to listen to an audio shape and then to recognize and reproduce it by walking. After each audio shape was presented, a static sound was played and the participants were asked to reach it. Movements were recorded with a motion tracking system. Our results show three main impairments specific to early blind individuals. The first is the tendency to compress the shapes reproduced during navigation. The second is the difficulty to recognize complex audio stimuli, and finally, the third is the difficulty in reproducing the desired shape: early blind participants occasionally reported perceiving a square but they actually reproduced a circle during the navigation task. We discuss these results in terms of compromised spatial reference frames due to lack of visual input during the early period of development.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Shape Perception and Navigation in Blind Adults

et al. 2017

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“…Early blind individuals are as accurate, if not more accurate, than sighted individuals when having to localize sound sources on the horizontal plane but show deficits when localizing sound sources on the vertical plane or when estimating the absolute distance of auditory cues. In fact, recent evidence suggests a trade-off in the localization proficiency of early blind individuals between the horizontal and vertical planes (Voss et al, 2015), such that the more accurate an individual is in one plane, the worse that same individual is in the other plane. Why this trade-off occurs remains unclear, but it might stem from the greater ecological benefit of being accurate in the horizontal plane.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although localization ability in the vertical plane is also believed to rest primarily on spectral cues (Middlebrooks and Green, 1991; Blauert, 1997), early blind individuals have been shown to be worse than sighted individuals when localizing sound targets in the vertical mid-sagittal plane (Zwiers et al, 2001; Lewald, 2002). Voss et al (2015) recently attempted to resolve this discrepancy by comparing the ability of early blind individuals to localize sounds in both the horizontal and vertical plane. The results confirmed both sets of previous findings: on average, the blind are better at localizing sounds monaurally in the horizontal plane and display deficits when localizing in the vertical plane.…”

Section: Dimensions Of Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory Spatial Perception without Vision

Voss

2016

Front. Psychol.

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Valuable insights into the role played by visual experience in shaping spatial representations can be gained by studying the effects of visual deprivation on the remaining sensory modalities. For instance, it has long been debated how spatial hearing evolves in the absence of visual input. While several anecdotal accounts tend to associate complete blindness with exceptional hearing abilities, experimental evidence supporting such claims is, however, matched by nearly equal amounts of evidence documenting spatial hearing deficits. The purpose of this review is to summarize the key findings which support either enhancements or deficits in spatial hearing observed following visual loss and to provide a conceptual framework that isolates the specific conditions under which they occur. Available evidence will be examined in terms of spatial dimensions (horizontal, vertical, and depth perception) and in terms of frames of reference (egocentric and allocentric). Evidence suggests that while early blind individuals show superior spatial hearing in the horizontal plane, they also show significant deficits in the vertical plane. Potential explanations underlying these contrasting findings will be discussed. Early blind individuals also show spatial hearing impairments when performing tasks that require the use of an allocentric frame of reference. Results obtained with late-onset blind individuals suggest that early visual experience plays a key role in the development of both spatial hearing enhancements and deficits.

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“…Interestingly, as with adaptation to a unilateral hearing loss, more accurate sound localization in blind humans is associated with greater dependence on spectral localization cues [78]. However, in blind subjects, this superior use of spectral cues for localization in the horizontal plane appears to come at the cost of a reduced ability to use these cues for localization in the vertical plane [79]. More complex aspects of spatial hearing are additionally impaired following loss of vision [80 ].…”

Section: Visual Influences On Auditory Spatial Plasticitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Sound localization in a changing world

Keating

King

2015

Current Opinion in Neurobiology

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In natural environments, neural systems must be continuously updated to reflect changes in sensory inputs and behavioral goals. Recent studies of sound localization have shown that adaptation and learning involve multiple mechanisms that operate at different timescales and stages of processing, with other sensory and motor-related inputs playing a key role. We are only just beginning to understand, however, how these processes interact with one another to produce adaptive changes at the level of neuronal populations and behavior. Because there is no explicit map of auditory space in the cortex, studies of sound localization may also provide much broader insight into the plasticity of complex neural representations that are not topographically organized.

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Trade-Off in the Sound Localization Abilities of Early Blind Individuals between the Horizontal and Vertical Planes

Cited by 52 publications

References 27 publications

Shape Perception and Navigation in Blind Adults

Shape Perception and Navigation in Blind Adults

Auditory Spatial Perception without Vision

Sound localization in a changing world

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