title: Unilateral spectral and temporal compression reduces binaural fusion for normal hearing listeners with cochlear implant simulations.
abstract: Patients with single sided deafness have recently begun receiving cochlear implants in their deaf ear. These patients gain a significant benefit from having a cochlear implant. However, despite this benefit, they are considerably slower to develop binaural abilities such as summation compared to bilateral cochlear implant patients. This suggests that these patients have difficulty fusing electric and acoustic signals. Although this may reflect inherent differences between electric and acoustic stimulation, it may also reflect properties of the processor and fitting system, which result in spectral and temporal compression. To examine the possibility that unilateral spectral and temporal compression can adversely affect binaural fusion, this study tested normal hearing listeners' binaural fusion through the use of vocoded speech with unilateral spectral and temporal compression. The results indicate that unilateral spectral and temporal compression can each hinder binaural fusion and thus may adversely affect binaural abilities in patients with single sided deafness who use a cochlear implant in their deaf ear.
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 901 S. 6th St., Champaign, IL 61820, USA. Electronic address: jaronoff@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Justin M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Aronoff
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 901 S. 6th St., Champaign, IL 61820, USA; Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 393 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801, USA. Electronic address: Shayman2@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Corey
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shayman
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 901 S. 6th St., Champaign, IL 61820, USA. Electronic address: aprasad7@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Akila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 901 S. 6th St., Champaign, IL 61820, USA. Electronic address: suneel2@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Deepa
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Suneel
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech and Hearing Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 901 S. 6th St., Champaign, IL 61820, USA. Electronic address: stelmac2@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stelmach
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003638:Deafness / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D059227:Postsynaptic Potential Summation / Q000502:physiology; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013997:Time Factors