Training spatial hearing in unilateral cochlear implant users through reaching to sounds in virtual reality.

Background And Purpose: Use of unilateral cochlear implant (UCI) is associated with limited spatial hearing skills. Evidence that training these abilities in UCI user is possible remains limited. In this study, we assessed whether a Spatial training based on hand-reaching to sounds performed in virtual reality improves spatial hearing abilities in UCI users METHODS: Using a crossover randomized clinical trial, we compared the effects of a Spatial training protocol with those of a Non-Spatial control training.

Reaching to Sounds Improves Spatial Hearing in Bilateral Cochlear Implant Users.

Objectives: We assessed if spatial hearing training improves sound localization in bilateral cochlear implant (BCI) users and whether its benefits can generalize to untrained sound localization tasks.

Design: In 20 BCI users, we assessed the effects of two training procedures (spatial versus nonspatial control training) on two different tasks performed before and after training (head-pointing to sound and audiovisual attention orienting). In the spatial training, participants identified sound position by reaching toward the sound sources with their hand.