The main objective is to evaluate the hearing aids benefits for spatial hearing with a multidisciplinary approach combing psychophysics, and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) brain imaging in a before/after experimental design. The novelty of the proposal is both theoretical and methodological: the team aim is to identify neural correlates of spatial hearing after hearing rehabilitation and evaluate the evolution of spatial hearing abilities once subjects with presbycusis are fitted with hearing aids. The assessment of spatial hearing processing will rely on both a virtual visuo-auditory 3D immersive platform and functional neuroimaging using PET scan. This project will provide crucial elements for understanding and improving the rehabilitation of age-related hearing loss.
Hearing aids restore efficiently some auditory functions in age-related hearing loss (ARHL or presbycusis) providing to the elderly an access to oral communication and a return to social life. However, a most of the assessments of their efficacy focus on speech recognition. Spatial hearing and localization are anothers important auditory functions merely evaluated.~The purpose of this study is to evaluate the hearing aids benefits for spatial hearing.