Spatial Hearing in Children with Visual Disabilities

Ashmead, Daniel H.; Wall, Robert; Ebinger, Kiara; Eaton, Susan B.; Snook-Hill, Mary M.; Yang, Xuefeng

doi:10.1068/p270105

Cited by 91 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…This also agrees with the observations that blind listeners are at least comparable and usually slightly better than sighted listeners in performing localization task (Ashmead et al, 1998;Lessard et al, 1998;Starlinger and Niemeyer, 1981;Simon et al, 2002). The point of view that general visibility of surroundings is usually not helpful in auditory localization task is further supported by who reported that short-term (90 min) light deprivation prior to the localization task improves localization accuracy (but not localization precision; see section 5).…”

Section: Vision and Memory Cuessupporting

confidence: 79%

Auditory Spatial Perception: Auditory Localization

Łȩtowski¹,

Letowski²

2012

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Section: Vision and Memory Cuessupporting

confidence: 79%

Auditory Spatial Perception: Auditory Localization

Łȩtowski¹,

Letowski²

2012

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“…We have argued that a point in space can be identified by the organism based on the observation that different acoustic inputs originated from the same relative spatial location show similar changes to motor actions. We employ this assumption because there is considerable evidence provided by studies on blind subjects suggesting that sound localization can develop without the help of another distal exteroceptive sense such as vision (Ashmead et al, 1998;Lewald, 2002). However, we fully recognize the potential importance of vision, when available.…”

Section: Multi-sensory Nature Of Spatial Hearingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Sensorimotor Approach to Sound Localization

2008

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Sound localization is known to be a complex phenomenon, combining multisensory information processing, experience-dependent plasticity and movement. Here we present a sensorimotor model that addresses the question of how an organism could learn to localize sound sources without any a priori neural representation of its head related transfer function (HRTF) or prior experience with auditory spatial information. We demonstrate quantitatively that the experience of the sensory consequences of its voluntary motor actions allows an organism to learn the spatial location of any sound source. Using examples from humans and echolocating bats, our model shows that a naive organism can learn the auditory space based solely on acoustic inputs and their relation to motor states.

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“…Examination of localization precision as a function of source location by Röder et al (1999) found comparable results in the frontal direction and improved localization for more lateral sounds in blind subjects. Ashmead et al (1998), in addition to providing a thorough bibliographic study on spatial audition studies, presented a study comparing Minimum Audible Angle (MAA) for azimuthal changes around positions at 0 • and 45 • and elevation changes at 0 • , and Minimum Audible Distance (MAD) thresholds. Test protocol used a 2-down 1-up staircase method.…”

Section: Spatial Auditory Perception Of the Visually Impairedmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Audio Applied to Research with the Blind

Katz¹,

Picinali²

2011

Advances in Sound Localization

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Advances in Sound Localizationwww.intechopen.com interesting result was found by Ohuchi et al. (2006) in testing angular and distance localization for azimuthally located sources with and without head movement. Overall, blind subjects outperformed sighted control for all positions. For distance estimations, in addition to being more accurate, errors by blind subjects tended to be overestimations, while sighted control subject errors were underestimations, in accordance with numerous other studies. These studies indicate that one must take a second look at many of the accepted conclusions of auditory perception, especially spatial auditory perception, when considering the blind, who do not necessarily have the same error typologies due to different learning sensory conditions. A number of studies, such as Weeks et al. (2000), have focused on neural plasticity, or changes in brain functioning, evaluated for auditory tasks between blind and sighted subjects. Results by both Elbert et al. (2002) and Poirier et al. (2006) have shown increased activity in typically visual areas of the brain for blind subjects. While localization, spectral analysis, and other basic tasks are of significant importance in understanding basic auditory perception and differences that may exist in performance ability between sighted and blind individuals, these performance differences are inherently limited by the capacity of the auditory system. Rather, it is in the exploitation of this acoustic and auditory information, requiring higher level cognitive processing, where blind individuals are able to excel relative to the sighted population. Navigational tasks are one instance where this seems to be clear. Strelow & Brabyn (1982) performed an experiment where subjects were to walk a constant distance from a simple straight barrier, being a wall or series of poles at 2 m intervals (diameter 15 cm or 5 cm), without any physical contact to the barrier. Footfall noise and finger snaps were the only information. With 8 blind and 14 blindfolded sighted control subjects, blind subjects clearly outperformed sighed subjects, some of whom claimed the task to be impossible. The results showed that blindfolded subjects performed overall as well in the wall condition as blind subject in the two pole conditions. Morrongiello et al. (1995) tested spatial navigation with blind and sighted children (ages 4.5 to 9 years). Within a carpeted room (3.7 m × 4.9 m), four tactile landmarks were placed at the center of each wall. Subjects, blind or blindfolded, were guided around the room to the different landmarks in order to build a spatial cognitive map. The same paths were used for all subjects, and not all connecting paths were presented. This learning stage was performed with or without an auditory landmark condition, a single metronome placed at the starting position. Subjects were then asked to move from a given landmark to another, with both known and novel paths being tested. Different trajectory parameters were evaluated. Results for sighted subjects in...

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Spatial Hearing in Children with Visual Disabilities

Cited by 91 publications

References 44 publications

Auditory Spatial Perception: Auditory Localization

Auditory Spatial Perception: Auditory Localization

A Sensorimotor Approach to Sound Localization

Spatial Audio Applied to Research with the Blind

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