Visual localization of sounds

To demonstrate that bimodal stimulation provides benefit in the recovery of spatial representation deficits in patients with auditory functions impaired by right hemisphere lesions.

Protocol

The patient sits 70cm in front of the device. While maintaining the fixation point at the center, the patient must verbally indicate the spatial position where the auditory stimulus is presented. Unimodal stimuli (auditory only) and bimodal stimuli (sound and light temporally and spatially coincident and non-coincident) are presented. Stimuli presented in 15 sessions of 48 stimuli each over 3 consecutive days.

Results

To test the hypothesis that a visual signal improves performance in auditory localization, the percentage of correct responses for each sound position was analyzed using two-way ANOVA, with sound position and condition as main factors.

Sound localization abilities improve considerably with cross-modal rehabilitation training only if the visual stimulus is presented spatially coincident with the auditory stimulus.