Functional spatial hearing in reverberation by pediatrically implanted children and young adults - project/summary abstract spatial hearing enables children to navigate complex auditory…

The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders awarded Father Flanagan's Boys' Home $681,606 on September 1, 2026, under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173) to investigate functional spatial hearing in pediatrically implanted bilateral cochlear implant users exposed to reverberant real-world listening environments.

The funded research examines how reverberation and cochlear implant signal processing jointly affect spatial hearing in two cohorts of pediatrically implanted bilateral cochlear implant recipients: children and young adults aged 8–20 years with inter-implantation duration less than 24 months, and adults aged 20–30 years with inter-implantation duration more than 24 months. The study assesses auditory image perception, spatial acuity, and spatial unmasking using psychophysical methods and ecologically valid reverberant simulations, with normal-hearing children and adults providing comparison data. The research focuses on how decorrelated interaural signals coupled with cochlear implant processing affect auditory function in developmental and mature populations.

Performance of work takes place in Omaha, Nebraska. The period of performance runs from September 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031. This is a Project Grant, the primary assistance type under the NIDCD Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program, supporting direct research costs including salaries, equipment, supplies, and travel.

Functional spatial hearing in reverberation by pediatrically implanted children and young adults - project/summary abstract spatial hearing enables children to navigate complex auditory environments, such as noisy classrooms, by providing access to critical binaural cues. For children with severe-to-profound hearing loss, bilateral cochlear implants (BCIS) offer partial restoration of spatial hearing-primarily through interaural level differences. While many pediatrically implanted BCI users demonstrate sensitivity to interaural level differences and subsequent spatial hearing abilities in controlled free-field conditions, real-world listening environments introduce reverberation-reflected sound energy that attenuates the interaural level difference CUE-leading to signal decorrelation and impaired spatial hearing. This proposed project investigates how reverberation and CI signal processing jointly affect functional spatial hearing in two groups of pediatrically implanted BCI users: one group aged 8-20 years with inter-implantation duration less than 24 months to assess developmental trajectories and the other group aged 20-30 years with inter-implantation duration more than 24 months to investigate the risk of aural preference syndrome on spatial hearing at maturation. Normal hearing (NH) data are provided by children and adults on the same outcome measures for comparisons. Focusing on developmental and hearing-related factors, we assess three interconnected constructs: (1) auditory image perception, (2) spatial acuity, and (3) spatial unmasking, using psychophysical methods and ecologically valid simulations of reverberant environments. Our within-subject design allows US to examine how decorrelated interaural signals, coupled with cochlear implant processing, affect auditory image perception and the cascading impact into deficits in spatial resolution and masked speech performances. Findings will advance foundational knowledge of spatial hearing in reverberation among pediatric BCI users, identify performance gaps relative to NH peers, and inform future development of personalized bilateral fitting strategies for this growing clinical population. Ultimately, this work supports precision medicine approaches to optimize spatial hearing outcomes and aligns with key nidcd strategic priorities in understanding disordered auditory processes and enhancing real-world listening through advanced technologies.