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Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss

Moving the head while a sound is playing improves its localization in human listeners, in children and adults, with or without hearing problems. It remains to be ascertained if this benefit can also extend to aging adults with hearing-loss, a population in which spatial hearing difficulties are ofte...

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Autores principales: Gessa, Elena, Giovanelli, Elena, Spinella, Domenico, Verdelet, Grégoire, Farnè, Alessandro, Frau, Giuseppe Nicolò, Pavani, Francesco, Valzolgher, Chiara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9609159/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36310849
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.1026056
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author Gessa, Elena
Giovanelli, Elena
Spinella, Domenico
Verdelet, Grégoire
Farnè, Alessandro
Frau, Giuseppe Nicolò
Pavani, Francesco
Valzolgher, Chiara
author_facet Gessa, Elena
Giovanelli, Elena
Spinella, Domenico
Verdelet, Grégoire
Farnè, Alessandro
Frau, Giuseppe Nicolò
Pavani, Francesco
Valzolgher, Chiara
author_sort Gessa, Elena
collection PubMed
description Moving the head while a sound is playing improves its localization in human listeners, in children and adults, with or without hearing problems. It remains to be ascertained if this benefit can also extend to aging adults with hearing-loss, a population in which spatial hearing difficulties are often documented and intervention solutions are scant. Here we examined performance of elderly adults (61–82 years old) with symmetrical or asymmetrical age-related hearing-loss, while they localized sounds with their head fixed or free to move. Using motion-tracking in combination with free-field sound delivery in visual virtual reality, we tested participants in two auditory spatial tasks: front-back discrimination and 3D sound localization in front space. Front-back discrimination was easier for participants with symmetrical compared to asymmetrical hearing-loss, yet both groups reduced their front-back errors when head-movements were allowed. In 3D sound localization, free head-movements reduced errors in the horizontal dimension and in a composite measure that computed errors in 3D space. Errors in 3D space improved for participants with asymmetrical hearing-impairment when the head was free to move. These preliminary findings extend to aging adults with hearing-loss the literature on the advantage of head-movements on sound localization, and suggest that the disparity of auditory cues at the two ears can modulate this benefit. These results point to the possibility of taking advantage of self-regulation strategies and active behavior when promoting spatial hearing skills.
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spelling pubmed-96091592022-10-28 Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss Gessa, Elena Giovanelli, Elena Spinella, Domenico Verdelet, Grégoire Farnè, Alessandro Frau, Giuseppe Nicolò Pavani, Francesco Valzolgher, Chiara Front Hum Neurosci Human Neuroscience Moving the head while a sound is playing improves its localization in human listeners, in children and adults, with or without hearing problems. It remains to be ascertained if this benefit can also extend to aging adults with hearing-loss, a population in which spatial hearing difficulties are often documented and intervention solutions are scant. Here we examined performance of elderly adults (61–82 years old) with symmetrical or asymmetrical age-related hearing-loss, while they localized sounds with their head fixed or free to move. Using motion-tracking in combination with free-field sound delivery in visual virtual reality, we tested participants in two auditory spatial tasks: front-back discrimination and 3D sound localization in front space. Front-back discrimination was easier for participants with symmetrical compared to asymmetrical hearing-loss, yet both groups reduced their front-back errors when head-movements were allowed. In 3D sound localization, free head-movements reduced errors in the horizontal dimension and in a composite measure that computed errors in 3D space. Errors in 3D space improved for participants with asymmetrical hearing-impairment when the head was free to move. These preliminary findings extend to aging adults with hearing-loss the literature on the advantage of head-movements on sound localization, and suggest that the disparity of auditory cues at the two ears can modulate this benefit. These results point to the possibility of taking advantage of self-regulation strategies and active behavior when promoting spatial hearing skills. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-10-13 /pmc/articles/PMC9609159/ /pubmed/36310849 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.1026056 Text en Copyright © 2022 Gessa, Giovanelli, Spinella, Verdelet, Farnè, Frau, Pavani and Valzolgher. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Human Neuroscience
Gessa, Elena
Giovanelli, Elena
Spinella, Domenico
Verdelet, Grégoire
Farnè, Alessandro
Frau, Giuseppe Nicolò
Pavani, Francesco
Valzolgher, Chiara
Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss
title Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss
title_full Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss
title_fullStr Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss
title_full_unstemmed Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss
title_short Spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss
title_sort spontaneous head-movements improve sound localization in aging adults with hearing loss
topic Human Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9609159/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36310849
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2022.1026056
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