Accurate auditory localization relies on neural computations based on spatial cues present in the sound waves at each ear. The values of these cues depend on the size, shape, and separation of the two ears and can therefore vary from one individual to another. As with other perceptual skills, the neural circuits involved in spatial hearing are shaped by experience during development and retain ...

Cochlear implants (CIs) partially restore hearing to the deaf by directly stimulating the inner ear. In individuals fitted with CIs, lack of auditory experience due to loss of hearing before language acquisition can adversely impact outcomes. For example, adults with early-onset hearing loss generally do not integrate inputs from both ears effectively when fitted with bilateral CIs (BiCIs). Her...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS To investigate whether a contralateral routing of signal (CROS) microphone combined with a unilateral cochlear implant (CI) results in hearing improvement after a prolonged trial period. STUDY DESIGN A prospective experimental trial was undertaken on a group of 10 postlingually deafened adults who are experienced CI users. METHODS Participants completed audiometric tes...

1. The time of arrival of the wave front of a sound event at the ears, or more specifically, the difference in arrival times at the two different ears. A sound source anywhere on a line from due front, through due above to due back (the median plane) will have its wave front arrive at the two ears simultaneously. Move the source away from this line and one ear will begin to receive the wave fro...

All the objects of our perceptive world are distinct in time and space and have distinct properties, i.e., they appear at certain times, in certain positions, and are equipped with qualities specific to them. What is valid for all the percepts, consequently, also applies to what one can hear namely, what we shall call the auditory events in the following. People who listen to a speaker have, fo...

The human auditory system performs remarkably at determining the positions of sound sources in an acoustic environment. While the localization ability of humans has been studied and quantified, there are no existing models capable of explaining many of the phenomena associated with spatial hearing. This thesis describes a spatial hearing model intended to reproduce human localization ability in...

Spatial auditory cues are not a dominant factor in human auditory scene analysis (i.e., in " parsing " the sound reaching the ears to determine the number and spectral content of competing sound sources) [1-5]. However, spatial hearing is very important for understanding a target source in an environment that has multiple sound sources [6-9]. Resolving this apparent paradox is critical for unde...

The ability to determine the location of a sound source is fundamental to hearing. However, auditory space is not represented in any systematic manner on the basilar membrane of the cochlea, the sensory surface of the receptor organ for hearing. Understanding the means by which sensitivity to spatial cues is computed in central neurons can therefore contribute to our understanding of the basic ...