Comparative Assessment of Spatial and Temporal Resolutions in the Localization of an Approaching and Receding Broadband

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arative Assessment of Spatial and Temporal Resolutions in the Localization of an Approaching and Receding Broadband Noise Source in Healthy Subjects and Patients with First-Degree Symmetric Sensorineural Hearing Loss I. G. Andreevaa, *, E. A. Klishovab, A. P. Gvozdevaa, V. M. Sitdikova, L. E. Golovanovab, and E. A. Ogorodnikovac aSechenov

Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia bMunicipal Geriatric Medical and Social Center, St. Petersburg, Russia c Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia *e-mail: [email protected] Received December 10, 2019; revised January 16, 2020; accepted March 20, 2020

Abstract—Comparative assessment of the spatial and temporal resolutions of hearing for stationary and moving sound images was performed in free field for 12 normally hearing listeners and 12 patients with symmetric sensorineural hearing loss of the first degree. It has been shown that the spatial resolution in patients with hearing loss is not changed during localization of stationary sound images, while the temporal and spatial thresholds of a moving sound source localization vary. In different patients, they may coincide with the data obtained for the group of normally hearing subjects or may be several times higher. One of the reasons for this variability may be temporal auditory analysis impairment. A correlation of the characteristics of moving sound images localization revealed in patients with hearing loss indicates different degrees of central auditory system impairment in patients with similar tonal audiograms. Keywords: spatial hearing, hearing loss, threshold of hearing, auditory movement perception, distance perception, temporal resolution DOI: 10.1134/S0362119720040039

Sensoneural hearing loss (SNHL), caused by agerelated changes in hearing, is characterized by a symmetric increase in auditory thresholds at high frequencies, which limits the participation of the high-frequency binaural mechanism in the localization of sound sources. Along with the increase in auditory thresholds, a number of other disturbances in perception arise in SNHL [1, 2]. One of them is the so-called recruitment phenomenon, which consists in narrowing the range of perceived intensities of sound, and disrupting the compression function, which relates the intensity of a signal to its subjective volume. Since the intensity of the sound signal is one of the main auditory cues for auditory distance perception, the manifestations of recruitment which accompany SNHL can affect the listener’s judgments on the distance to the sound source, as well as the perception of its approaching and receding. Localization impairments in hearing loss have been studied mainly with the use of stationary sound sources or their movement in the azimuthal plane [3– 5]. At the same time, hearing loss at high frequencies, characteristic of age-related hearing loss (presbycu-

sis), leads to disruption of the processing of spatial information mainly in the sag