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Updated: Jun 4, 2026
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Systematic Hearing Performance Evaluation Process for Adolescents with Cochlear Implantation at Early Ages
Published on: March 24, 2023
Spatial hearing of normally hearing and cochlear implanted children.
John Murphy1, A Quentin Summerfield, Gerard M O'Donoghue
1ENT Department, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH, UK.
International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
|February 8, 2011
Summary
Children with cochlear implants show useful spatial hearing. Bilateral cochlear implant (BCI) users performed better than unilateral cochlear implant (UCI) users, especially with lateral noise, but both groups had poorer spatial hearing than normally hearing children.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Speech and Hearing Sciences
- Pediatric Audiology
Background:
- Spatial hearing relies on monaural and binaural cues, necessitating good hearing.
- Children with cochlear implants (CIs) may have impaired spatial hearing compared to normally hearing peers.
- Previous research lacked extensive testing of spatial hearing in children with unilateral cochlear implants (UCI) under ecologically valid conditions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To establish norms for spatial hearing in normally hearing (NH) children and UCI users.
- To gather preliminary data on spatial hearing in children with bilateral cochlear implants (BCI).
- To compare the spatial hearing abilities of NH children, UCI users, and BCI users.
Main Methods:
- Tested two spatial hearing tasks: lateral release and localization.
- Participants included NH children (n=40), UCI users (n=12), and BCI users (n=6), age-matched (6-15 years).
- Utilized a horizontal loudspeaker array in a clinical setting with speech stimuli and masking noise.
Main Results:
- Implant users performed worse than NH children on all spatial hearing tasks.
- BCI users showed better performance with lateral noise compared to UCI users.
- Both UCI and BCI users demonstrated better-than-chance localization abilities, with BCI users performing significantly better.
Conclusions:
- Children with both UCI and BCI possess functional spatial hearing capabilities.
- BCI users exhibit improved binaural benefits and localization compared to UCI users.
- While BCI users approach normal hearing performance in some aspects, NH children remain superior.
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01:13The Cochlea
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Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by identifying...
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by identifying...