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Partial visual loss disrupts the relationship between judged room size and sound source distance.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Kolarik, Andrew J 
Moore, Brian CJ 
Cirstea, Silvia 
Raman, Rajiv 
Gopalakrishnan, Sarika 

Abstract

Visual spatial information plays an important role in calibrating auditory space. Blindness results in deficits in a number of auditory abilities, which have been explained in terms of the hypothesis that visual information is needed to calibrate audition. When judging the size of a novel room when only auditory cues are available, normally sighted participants may use the location of the farthest sound source to infer the nearest possible distance of the far wall. However, for people with partial visual loss (distinct from blindness in that some vision is present), such a strategy may not be reliable if vision is needed to calibrate auditory cues for distance. In the current study, participants were presented with sounds at different distances (ranging from 1.2 to 13.8 m) in a simulated reverberant (T60 = 700 ms) or anechoic room. Farthest distance judgments and room size judgments (volume and area) were obtained from blindfolded participants (18 normally sighted, 38 partially sighted) for speech, music, and noise stimuli. With sighted participants, the judged room volume and farthest sound source distance estimates were positively correlated (p < 0.05) for all conditions. Participants with visual losses showed no significant correlations for any of the conditions tested. A similar pattern of results was observed for the correlations between farthest distance and room floor area estimates. Results demonstrate that partial visual loss disrupts the relationship between judged room size and sound source distance that is shown by sighted participants.

Description

Funder: Vision and Eye Research Institute, School of Medicine, Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University.

Keywords

Auditory distance, Multisensory plasticity, Sound localization, Spatial hearing, Vision loss

Journal Title

Experimental Brain Research

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0014-4819
1432-1106

Volume Title

240

Publisher

Springer
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M026957/1)