The CherISH network

Project 4: Impact of head movements startegy on auditory rehabilitation

Host Institution: Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, France
In this project, cooperation between the Lyon Neuroscience Research Centre (CRNL) and the Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL, clinical partner).

This project aims to determine the contribution of spatial dynamic cues generated by active explorations to auditory rehabilitation protocols. Our prediction is that the combination of both head- and hand-movement on the same object will promote Spatial Hearing (SH) training. In order to test this hypothesis, the impact of head-movements and hand-movements strategies on auditory rehabilitation protocols will be investigated in patients in whom auditory cues are limited (patients with hearing aids) or compromised (normal hearing subject with altered auditory abilities). Furthermore, the project will examine to what extent these acquired regulatory skills entailing head- and hand-movements could transfer to more naturalistically-valid context reproduced in virtual reality (e.g., searching for sounds in complex audio-visual environments).

The doctoral student will employ a psychophysical approach using the virtual reality (VR) system ‘SPHERE’ developed by our group (see Gaveau et al., 2022) used for the assessment and training spatial hearing skills. The student will actively participate in the development of experimental protocols in VR to assess the contribution of spatial dynamic information to SH performance. He will collaborate in establishing and administering the protocols that will be conducted with normal-hearing subjects, subjects with altered auditory abilities, and cochlear implants users.

Our Partners for this project:

• ICL, Imperial College London, UK [Secondment 1]
  
• KUL, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium [Secondment 2]