Topic: interaural time differences

Having two ears enables us to localize sound sources by exploiting interaural time differences (ITDs) in sound arrival. Principal neurons of the medial superior olive (MSO) are sensitive to ITD, and each MSO neuron responds optimally to a best ITD (bITD). In many cells, especially those tuned to low sound frequencies, these bITDs correspond to ITDs for which the contralateral ear leads, and are often larger than the ecologically relevant range, defined by the ratio of the interaural distance and the speed of sound. Using in vivo recordings in gerbils, we found that shortly after hearing onset

Early deafened patients with bilateral cochlear implants (biCI) often show impaired spatial hearing, particularly due to reduced sensitivity to interaural time differences (ITDs). Recent research of our groups has shown that neonatally deafened rats, supplied with biCI in young adulthood, can effectively learn to use ITDs for sound localization if the animals received informative pulse timing (pt) ITDs from the onset of stimulation. Here we investigate whether the hearing-inexperienced auditory system can develop good ITD sensitivity when ptITDs are jittered from onset of electric stimulation.

Spatial hearing, as a fundamental aspect of auditory perception, plays a central role in our daily interactions with the auditory environment. The ability to localize sound and navigate through our environment relies primarily on two binaural cues: interaural time differences (ITDs) and interaural level differences (ILDs). However, for patients with bilateral cochlear implants (biCI), sound localization is a major challenge and ITD sensitivity is particularly poor, with most biCI patients relying almost exclusively on ILDs. Nevertheless, our recent work demonstrates that neonatally deafened ra