Article
Monaural and binaural sound localization in listeners with single-sided deafness and cochlear implants (en)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
It has been argued that patients with single-sided deafness (SSD) who receive a cochlear implant (CI) obtain improved localization abilities. However, the localization accuracy with and without the CI varies largely across individuals. One possible explanation is that not all individuals rely on the same spatial cues. This study aimed to characterize which monaural and binaural cues SSD patients rely on for localization and to establish more precise measures of performance to group these patients. To tease apart the influence of the monaural cues, four different roving conditions were investigated: no roving, level roving, spectral roving, and level-spectral roving. Participants were asked to localize a sound coming from one of seven loudspeaker locations (-90° to 90°) with and without CI. Nine SSD patients with CIs participated in the study. Results show that the dependency on level versus spectral cues varies substantially between patients. Response patterns, the RMS error as a function of presentation angle, and the mean and standard deviation of the response per presentation angle seem to be promising measures for grouping patients. Identifying homogeneous subgroups might allow for better predictions of the binaural benefit before implantation, and thus, guide implantation decisions.