Scientific Reports
Fletcher M.D., Zgheib J. & Perry S.W.
Cochlear implants (CIs) have been remarkably successful, in recovering hearing for severely-to-profoundly hearing-impaired individuals. However, users still face substantial limitations, particularly for sound localisation and segregation. Recently, we have shown that sound localisation and segregation can be substantially improved for CI users using tactile stimulation on the wrists. A primary spatial hearing cue is the difference in sound intensity across the ears. To give CI users better access to these cues, we converted the sound received at each ear to vibrations on each wrist. Remarkably, we showed that the tactile system is as sensitive to across-wrist tactile intensity differences as the auditory system is to across-ear intensity differences and that this sensitivity is robust to aging. Our results indicate that even greater improvements in sound localisation and segregation for CI users than have already been achieved might be possible.