Minimum audible angles in children who use bilateral cochlear implants

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2009-04, Vol.125 (4_Supplement), p.2722-2722
• Main Authors: Zettler, Cynthia M., Godar, Shelly, Litovsky, Ruth Y.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4784453

Over 5000 children worldwide have received bilateral cochlear implants (CI) so that the auditory skills that rely on inputs to both ears, such as sound localization, may be improved. In this study, localization acuity was measured with minimum audible angles (MAA), the smallest discriminable distance between two locations in the frontal azimuth plane. It is unclear whether children who use bilateral CIs can attain MAAs comparable to their acoustically hearing peers, and if so, the extent to which exposure to bilateral hearing is necessary. Children having 3–36 months of bilateral experience participated. Stimuli were spondaic words presented at an overall level of 60 dB (± 4 dB rove). Every child with >5 yrs of auditory experience performed the task, whereas some of the children with 2 yrs of bilateral experience were the best performers (MAA thresholds 30°). Results suggest that in children who receive bilateral CIs the two overall factors that impact performance are overall time in sound and amount of time with bilateral experience. [Work supported by NIH DC R01008365.]