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

Abstract

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.

Sound localization in noisy contexts: performance, metacognitive evaluations and head movements

“…One notable observation of the present work is that participants who exhibited more head movements and who explored a greater spatial extent made smaller localization errors. This result is in line with the growing body of research that highlights the benefits of head movements in reducing sound localization errors (Coudert et al, 2022 ; Gaveau et al, 2022 ; Gessa et al, 2022 ; Pastore et al, 2018 ; Thurlow et al, 1967 ). Plus, it extended the observations of this benefit toward listening while immersed in common noisy contexts.…”

“…This behavior is spontaneous in the sense that it is reactive to what is happening in the environment. Previous studies on the effects of the head on sound localization have shown that spontaneous head movements improve localization skills in silence (Coudert et al, 2022 ; Gaveau et al, 2022 ; Gessa et al, 2022 ; Wallach, 1948 ). This is true even when the head movements are not spontaneous but requested or guided by the experimenter (Pastore et al, 2018 ; Thurlow et al, 1967 ).…”

Sound-seeking before and after hearing loss in mice

“…To find out which smoke alarm is chirping, one is more likely to explore the house room by room than to sit stationary and compute interaural localization cues (Groh, 2014). Finally, interaural time and localization cues are identical for a sound exactly in front and exactly behind the listener, but this ambiguity can be instantly resolved by moving the head to a new angle, which will generate very different cues for the two previously ambiguous cases (Perrett and Noble, 1997; Wightman and Kistler, 1999; Gessa et al ., 2022). These movement strategies improve SNR by moving the sensor rather than by implementing complex algorithms to process noisy data.…”

Audiovisual Training in Virtual Reality Improves Auditory Spatial Adaptation in Unilateral Hearing Loss Patients

“…The spontaneous reaction of turning the head and body towards a sound source has been found to be an important factor in weighing auditory cues [ 27 , 28 ]. Studies comparing static and active listening conditions showed better spatial performance when head movements were allowed [ 18 , 22 , 29 ].…”