Figure 9.

Impact of unilateral earplugging on closed-field ILD lateralization. A, Linear fits to the stimulus–response data obtained from one subject. Negative values represent stimuli presented from the plugged side. Plugging one ear biases response toward the side of the open ear, a pattern that appears to persist after 1 week of wearing the plug. Removal of the plug causes an immediate return to pre-plug performance. B, Observed gains and biases obtained by fitting an ANCOVA model to the stimulus–response data obtained from each subject. Jitter has been applied to the bias values in the leftmost panel for presentation purposes. Negative biases represent stimuli presented from the plugged side. In all subjects, plugging one ear reduced the response gain and increased the bias toward the side of the open ear. Although gains recovered after plug removal, there was some tendency for subjects to respond toward the side of the previously plugged ear.