TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kühn, Heike
A1  - Schön, Franz
A1  - Edelmann, Karola
A1  - Brill, Stefan
A1  - Müller, Joachim
T1  - The Development of Lateralization Abilities in Children with Bilateral Cochlear Implants
T2  - ORL
N2  - Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of lateralization skills in children who received bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) in sequential operations. Methods: The lateralization skills of 9 children with a mean age of 4.1 years at the first surgery and 5.5 years at the second surgery were assessed at 3 time intervals. Children were assessed with a 3-loudspeaker setup (front, left and right) at 0.9 years (interval I) and 1.6 years (interval II) after the second implantation, and after 5.3 years of bilateral implant use (interval III) with a 9-loudspeaker setup in the frontal horizontal plane between -90° and 90° azimuth. Results: With bilateral implants, a significant decrease in lateralization error was noted between test interval I (45.0°) and II (23.3°), with a subsequent significant decrease at test interval III (4.7°). Unilateral performance with the CI did not improve significantly between the first 2 intervals; however, there was a bias of responses towards the unilateral side by test interval III. Conclusions: The lateralization abilities of children with bilateral CIs develop in a relatively short period of time (1-2 years) after the second implant. Children appear to be able to acquire binaural skills after bilateral cochlear implantation.
KW  - localization
KW  - bilateral cochlear implant
KW  - children
KW  - MED-EL cochlear implant
KW  - lateralization
Y1  - 2013
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/19637
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-196375
SN  - 0301-1569
SN  - 1423-0275
N1  - This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.
VL  - 75
IS  - 2
ER  -