Unilaterally deaf people retain some ability to localize sound using monaural spectral cues
Evidence indicates that unilaterally deaf individuals retain a residual ability to localize sounds using monaural spectral cues, though performance is often impaired compared to normal binaural hearing.
While unilateral hearing loss severely disrupts spatial hearing and binaural cues, auditory literature confirms that monaural spectral cues (pinna filtering) provide a foundation for remaining localization abilities, particularly vertically and through long-term adaptation. Paper 0 establishes how spectral cues are weighted, Paper 6 shows adaptation in SSD, while Paper 7 strikes a cautious note on the limited contribution in a specific cohort. Overall, the claim is supported.
Ewan A. Macpherson, Andrew T. Sabin. Binaural weighting of monaural spectral cues for sound localization. 2007. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2722048
Paper [0] demonstrates that humans utilize monaural spectral cues (pinna filtering) depending on stimulus parameters and spectral range.
Ishino T, Yoshida T, Iwasaki S, Oishi N, Matsuda Y, Tono T, Sugahara K, Yamazaki H, Jitsukawa S, Nakanishi H, Kitoh R, Sato T, Nishida K, Oda T, Fujita R, Kawasumi T, Ishikawa C, Nishida M, Chikuie N, Horibe Y, Taruya T, Hamamoto T, Ueda T, Takeno S. Impact of hearing impairment in unilateral hearing loss: A multicenter study of standardized sound localization tests in Japan.. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anl.2025.09.010
Paper [7] suggests that in their specific cohort, the contribution of pinna-induced spectral cues to sound localization was limited.
See more details
Ausili SA, Prentiss SM, Sheets JJ, Snapp HA. Spatial hearing adaptation in congenital and acquired single-sided deafness.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2026.1726012
Paper [6] highlights that individuals with single-sided deafness retain adaptive capacity for spatial hearing, relying on spectral cues, particularly when deprivation is congenital.
The paper trail · every fact has a biography
Challenge the receipt
Citation formatting by citeproc-js (Frank Bennett) and the Citation Style Language project. Source and licenses.
Terms · Privacy · How verdicts work · Dispute this receipt