Effect of age at onset of deafness on binaural sensitivity in electric hearing in humans

Sensitivity to binaural cues was studied in 11 bilateral cochlear implant users, all of whom received both of their cochlear implants as adults, but who varied in the age at onset of deafness, from pre-lingual to childhood-onset to adult-onset. Sensitivity to interaural timing difference (ITD) and i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2010, Vol.127 (1), p.400-414
Main Authors: Litovsky, Ruth Y., Jones, Gary L., Agrawal, Smita, van Hoesel, Richard
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Adolescent
Adult
Age of Onset
Aging
Audition
Auditory Perception
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child, Preschool
Cochlear Implants
Cues
Deafness - therapy
Ear
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Perception
Psychoacoustics
Psychological Acoustics
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Time Factors
Young Adult
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Summary:Sensitivity to binaural cues was studied in 11 bilateral cochlear implant users, all of whom received both of their cochlear implants as adults, but who varied in the age at onset of deafness, from pre-lingual to childhood-onset to adult-onset. Sensitivity to interaural timing difference (ITD) and interaural level difference (ILD) cues was measured at basal, middle, and apical pitch-matched places of stimulation along the cochlear arrays, using a stimulation rate of 100 Hz . Results show that there is a trend for people whose onset of deafness occurred during adult life or late childhood to retain at least some sensitivity to ITDs, whereas people with onset of deafness earlier in life were insensitive to ITDs. In contrast, ILD cue sensitivity was present in all subjects. There were no effects of place of stimulation on binaural sensitivity, suggesting that there is no indication of a dependence of ITD sensitivity on apical vs basal electrode location.
ISSN:0001-4966
1520-8524
DOI:10.1121/1.3257546