Development of binaural and spatial hearing in infants and children

Abstract

When a person hears sounds in the environment, there are several important tasks that the auditory system must accomplish, such as determining the location of sound sources and the meaning of those sources. These tasks are relevant to children who spend time every day in noisy environments, such as classrooms, and adults who have to operate in complex auditory environments. The auditory mechanisms that enable listeners to accomplish these tasks are generally thought to involve binaural processing. Acoustic information arriving at the two ears is compared at the level of the brain stem, combined and transmitted to the central auditory system for further analysis. As discussed in the text that follows, in listeners with hearing loss these mechanisms may be compromised or not fully developed