Effect of asymmetric hearing on spatial selective attention
TL;DR
It is suggested that reducing functional asymmetry through novel programming approaches or training might improve spatial-hearing benefits with CIs by reducing functional asymmetry through novel programming approaches or training.
Abstract
More people are receiving cochlear implant (CIs) to partially restore hearing to both ears, either in cases of bilateral (BI-CI) or unilateral hearing loss (single-sided deafness, SSD-CI). Compared to monaural listening, this usually improves spatial-hearing abilities like sound localization and spatial release from masking (increased speech recognition for a target talker spatially separated from a masker). Yet spatial-hearing benefits with CIs are smaller than with acoustic hearing in both ears, and they appear to diminish with increasing functional asymmetry. We hypothesize that diminished spatial-hearing benefits are partly attributable to non-auditory-exclusive selective-attention abilities, whereby some individuals exhibit particular difficulty attending to a degraded target source in the presence of less degraded interfering source. We present data from several experiments in real and simulated human BI-CI and SSD-CI listeners that support this hypothesis. Measurements include behavioral binaural unmasking of speech and dichotic listening, pupillometry (an objective index of listening effort), and non-auditory cognitive tests. The results suggest that reducing functional asymmetry through novel programming approaches or training might improve spatial-hearing benefits with CIs. [The views expressed in this abstract are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of the Department of War or U.S. Government.]