Evidence for enhanced discrimination of virtual auditory distance among blind listeners using level and direct-to-reverberant cues
Evidence for enhanced discrimination of virtual auditory distance among blind listeners using level and direct-to-reverberant cues
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DOI：
10.1007/s00221-012-3340-0
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发表时间：
2013-02-01
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Pardhan, Shahina
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kolarik, Andrew J.;Cirstea, Silvia;Pardhan, Shahina
完全失明的听者在执行空间听力任务时往往表现出比正常人更好的能力。三维听觉空间的准确表示需要处理听者和声源之间的可用距离信息；然而，听觉距离线索根据环境的声学特性而变化很大，并且不知道哪些距离线索对于完全失明的听者是重要的。我们的数据显示，在使用房间成像程序模拟的无回声和混响的虚拟房间中，完全失明的听者在距离辨别任务中表现出比视力年龄匹配的控制者更好的表现。完全失明的听众对固定声源使用两种主要的听觉距离提示，即电平和直接混响比，在测试的许多虚拟距离中，这比目视控制更有效。这些结果表明，完全失明的听者对虚拟听觉空间距离的显著补偿会在一系列模拟的声学环境中带来好处。在部分不可矫正视力丧失的听众和视力正常的听众之间，没有观察到显著的表现差异，这表明对于部分视力丧失的听众来说，虚拟距离的感觉补偿没有发生。
Totally blind listeners often demonstrate better than normal capabilities when performing spatial hearing tasks. Accurate representation of three-dimensional auditory space requires the processing of available distance information between the listener and the sound source; however, auditory distance cues vary greatly depending upon the acoustic properties of the environment, and it is not known which distance cues are important to totally blind listeners. Our data show that totally blind listeners display better performance compared to sighted age-matched controls for distance discrimination tasks in anechoic and reverberant virtual rooms simulated using a room-image procedure. Totally blind listeners use two major auditory distance cues to stationary sound sources, level and direct-to-reverberant ratio, more effectively than sighted controls for many of the virtual distances tested. These results show that significant compensation among totally blind listeners for virtual auditory spatial distance leads to benefits across a range of simulated acoustic environments. No significant differences in performance were observed between listeners with partial non-correctable visual losses and sighted controls, suggesting that sensory compensation for virtual distance does not occur for listeners with partial vision loss.