Audiovisual Interactions in Stereo Sound Localization for Individuals With Unilateral Hearing Loss.
Emily J Venskytis, Colton Clayton, Christopher Montagne and 1 others
PMID 31035906WHAT IT FOUND
People with long-term moderate unilateral hearing loss localized stereo sounds as accurately as normal-hearing adults.
Those with severe loss or acute earplugging failed the task and were heavily pulled toward their better ear. Visual cues strongly biased localization in all hearing-loss groups.
Key findings
01Chronic moderate unilateral hearing loss listeners performed near-normally on stereo localization without visual cues.
02Severe chronic and acute unilateral hearing loss listeners showed degraded localization with a bias toward the intact ear.
03Visual bias was stronger in all unilateral hearing loss groups compared to normal hearing, and was asymmetric (stronger toward the loss side) in severe and acute groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study used a small sample size (N=18). The acute condition was simulated with earplugs, which may not perfectly replicate the timing distortions of real conductive hearing loss. Visual attention was not monitored or controlled, so the extent to which participants actively looked at the LEDs is unknown. The study used broadband noise and a specific stereo technique (time-delay-based) that isolates timing cues; results may not generalize to all real-world sound localization scenarios.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The research was supported by the U.S. Government (Non-P.H.S.).
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that patients with moderate unilateral hearing loss have normal localization in all environments. While they performed well on this specific timing-based task, they still exhibited significantly stronger visual bias than normal-hearing controls, meaning their perception of sound location can be easily manipulated by visual cues.