Impact of processing-latency induced interaural delay and level discrepancy on sensitivity to interaural level...

Area of Science:

• Auditory Neuroscience
• Audiology
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Hearing devices can introduce processing latency, causing interaural delays.
• Interaural level differences (ILDs) are crucial for sound localization.
• The impact of such delays on ILD sensitivity is not fully understood, particularly in cochlear implant (CI) users.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of interaural delays on ILD sensitivity.
• To compare this effect in normal hearing (NH) subjects and single-sided deafness with cochlear implant (SSD-CI) users.

Main Methods:

• ILD sensitivity was measured in 24 NH and 10 SSD-CI subjects.
• Stimuli included noise bursts presented via headphones and direct cable connection.
• ILD sensitivity was assessed across varying interaural delays and correlated with sound localization performance.

Main Results:

• NH subjects showed significantly decreased ILD sensitivity with increasing interaural delays.
• No significant effect of interaural delays on ILD sensitivity was observed in the SSD-CI group.
• SSD-CI users exhibited greater localization errors compared to NH subjects, with no correlation found between localization and ILD sensitivity.

Conclusions:

• Interaural delays impair ILD perception in NH individuals.
• The lack of significant findings in SSD-CI users may be attributed to small sample size and variability.
• Temporal synchrony may enhance ILD processing and sound localization for CI patients, warranting further research.