Binaural interference in bilateral cochlear-implant listeners

This work was aimed at determining whether binaural interference occurs in electric hearing, and if so, whether it occurs as a consequence of perceptual grouping (central explanation) or if it is related to the spread of excitation in the cochlea (peripheral explanation). Six bilateral cochlear-impl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2011-11, Vol.130 (5), p.2939-2950
Main Authors: Best, Virginia, Laback, Bernhard, Majdak, Piotr
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Aged
Audition
Auditory Perception
Auditory Threshold
Biological and medical sciences
Cochlea - physiopathology
Cochlear Implantation - instrumentation
Cochlear Implants
Correction of Hearing Impairment - psychology
Cues
Deafness - physiopathology
Deafness - psychology
Deafness - rehabilitation
Diseases of the ear
Electric Stimulation
Ent and stomatology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Perception
Perceptual Masking
Persons With Hearing Impairments - psychology
Persons With Hearing Impairments - rehabilitation
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects)
Time Factors
Young Adult
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Summary:This work was aimed at determining whether binaural interference occurs in electric hearing, and if so, whether it occurs as a consequence of perceptual grouping (central explanation) or if it is related to the spread of excitation in the cochlea (peripheral explanation). Six bilateral cochlear-implant listeners completed a series of experiments in which they judged the lateral position of a target pulse train, lateralized via interaural time or level differences, in the presence of an interfering diotic pulse train. The target and interferer were presented at widely separated electrode pairs (one basal and one apical). The results are broadly similar to those reported for acoustic hearing. Alllisteners but one showed significant binaural interference in at least one of the stimulus conditions. In all cases of interference, a robust recovery was observed when the interferer was presented as part of an ongoing stream of identical pulse trains, suggesting that the interference was at least partly centrally mediated. Overall, the results suggest that both simultaneous and sequential grouping mechanisms operate in electric hearing, at least for stimuli with a wide tonotopic separation.
ISSN:0001-4966
1520-8524
DOI:10.1121/1.3641400