Bimodal Condition Research Articles

Bilateral Cochlear Implantation Versus Bimodal Hearing in Patients With Functional Residual Hearing: A Within-subjects Comparison of Audiologic Performance and Quality of Life

Evaluate performance and quality of life changes after sequential bilateral cochlear implantation in patients with preoperative residual hearing functioning in a bimodal hearing configuration. Retrospective analysis using within-subjects repeated measures design. Tertiary otologic center. Twenty-two adult patients with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss who used bimodal hearing before second cochlear implant (CI) meeting the following criteria: 1) preoperative residual hearing (≤80 dB HL at 250 Hz) in the ear to be implanted, 2) implantation with current CI technology (2013-2016), 3) consonant-nucleus-consonant (CNC) speech recognition testing in the bimodal condition preoperatively and bilateral CI condition postoperatively. Cochlear implantation. CNC and AzBio sentence scores in quiet and noise (+5 SNR). Subjective measures of communication difficulty and sound quality were also administered. Twenty-two patients (mean 64 yr, 68% men) were included. At an average follow-up of 11.8 months, CNC scores in the bilateral CI condition (mean 63%, standard deviation [SD] = 22) were significantly better than preoperative bimodal scores with repeated measures analysis (mean 55%, SD = 22) (p = 0.03). AzBio scores in quiet were also higher with bilateral CI (mean 76%, SD = 24) compared with bimodal listening (mean 69%, SD = 29) (p = 0.0007). Global abbreviated profile of hearing aid benefit (APHAB) and overall speech, spatial, and qualities of hearing (SSQ) scores exhibited significant improvement following bilateral implantation (p = 0.006 for both analyses). For patients using a bimodal hearing configuration with substantial residual hearing in the non-CI ear, bilateral cochlear implantation yields improved audiologic performance and better subjective quality of life, irrespective of the ability to preserve acoustic hearing during the second sided implantation.

Bimodal benefit for cochlear implant listeners with different grades of hearing loss in the opposite ear

Objective: To determine speech perception in quiet and noise of adult cochlear implant listeners retaining a hearing aid contralaterally. Second, to investigate the influence of contralateral hearing thresholds and speech perception on bimodal hearing.Patients and methods: Sentence recognition with hearing aid alone, cochlear implant alone and bimodally at 6 months after cochlear implantation were assessed in 148 postlingually deafened adults. Data were analyzed for bimodal summation using measures of speech perception in quiet and in noise.Results: Most of the subjects showed improved sentence recognition in quiet and in noise in the bimodal condition compared to the hearing aid-only or cochlear implant-only mode. The large variability of bimodal benefit in quiet can be partially explained by the degree of pure tone loss. Also, subjects with better hearing on the acoustic side experience significant benefit from the additional electrical input.Conclusions: Bimodal summation shows different characteristics in quiet and noise. Bimodal benefit in quiet depends on hearing thresholds at higher frequencies as well as in the lower- and middle-frequency ranges. For the bimodal benefit in noise, no correlation with hearing threshold in any frequency range was found.

Bimodal neglect: When electrically- and acoustically stimulated ears do not play nice with each other

This study describes speech perception in quiet, before and after implantation, in 54 adult cochlear implant (CI) patients with usable hearing in the ear contralateral to the CI. Patients had preoperative aided CNC word scores of at least 8% as well as stable unaided hearing in the unimplanted ear throughout the analysis period. Word identification scores in quiet were analyzed for the implanted ear only (CI), acoustic hearing ear only (HA), and the bimodal condition (CI + HA) to determine changes in performance over time and to characterize bimodal benefit (difference between bimodal score and best single-ear score). On average, patients experienced 6% bimodal benefit in quiet after implantation. Not surprisingly, speech scores in the implanted ear and in the binaural condition significantly improved post-implantation. However, scores in the HA decreased unexpectedly after implantation in almost one third of the patients despite unchanged PTA. Although simple explanations like hearing aid malfunction or ...

Repetitive DNA distribution in Agave (Asparagaceae) bimodal karyotype

The genus Agave L. comprises about 300 species and is characterized by a bimodal karyotype with basic chromosome number x = 30 (5L and 25S) and ploidy levels ranging from diploids to hexaploids. Species of this genus have low heterochromatin content, visualized as CMA+/DAPI- bands, and one 5S and 35S ribosomal DNA sites per haploid genome. However, in silico analysis of the repetitive fraction of the Agave hybrid 11648 (2n = 2x = 60, 8.35 Mpb) revealed that ~ 67.6% of its genome is composed of different repetitive DNA families. Among the most abundant elements are Maximus, TAR and Tork (Copia), and Athila, Chromovirus and Ogre (Gypsy) LTR-retrotransponsons, as well as, a single family of satellite DNA. In order to investigate the repetitive DNA distribution in this bimodal karyotype, these seven elements were labeled by nick translation and hybridized in situ to the hybrid 11648 metaphases. The satellite DNA was located at centromeric regions of all chromosomes, however a subset of the small chromosomes had stronger signals. All transposable elements showed a dispersed distribution, mostly non-uniform along chromosomes arms. Athila and Maximus lineages showed stronger labeling of interstitial and distal regions of the long arms of large chromosomes, while Tork and especially TAR labeled more intensely the proximal regions. Small chromosomes showed variable labeling with all repetitive elements, generally weaker than large chromosomes. Together, these data revealed that different LTR retrotransposon lineages accumulated differentially, and usually more abundantly, in the large chromosomes, whereas the centromeric satellite DNA showed a quantitative variation between chromosomes, but not related to the bimodal condition of this karyotype.Financial support: CAPES, CNPq.

Should I fetch one or the other? A study on dogs on the object choice in the bimodal contrasting paradigm.

The present study assessed how dogs weigh gestural versus verbal information communicated to them by humans in transitive actions. The dogs were trained by their owners to fetch an object under three conditions: a bimodal congruent condition characterized by using gestures and voices simultaneously; a unimodal gestural condition characterized by using only gestures; and a unimodal verbal condition characterized by using only voices. An additional condition, defined as a bimodal incongruent condition, was later added, in which the gesture contrasted with the verbal command, that is, the owner indicated an object while pronouncing the name of the other object visible to dogs. In the incongruent condition, seven out of nine dogs choose to follow the gestural indication and performed above chance, two were at chance, whereas none of the dogs followed the verbal cues above chance. The dogs, as a group, performed above chance the gestural command in 73.6% of cases. The analysis of latencies in the above-mentioned four conditions exhibited significant differences. The unimodal verbal and the gestural conditions recorded a slower performance than both the bimodal incongruent and congruent conditions. No statistical differences were observed between the unimodal and bimodal conditions. Our results demonstrate that dogs, trained to respond equally well to gestural and verbal commands, choose to follow the indication provided by the gestural command than the verbal one to a significant extent in transitive actions. Furthermore, the responses to bimodal conditions were found to be quicker than the unimodal ones.

Multimodal Sustained Attention Superiority in Concentrative Meditators Compared to Nonmeditators

Attention regulation plays a central role in both Buddhist and secular forms of meditation. One of the most common meditative practices is a concentrative meditation technique aimed at developing sustained focused attention. Despite a growing body of research showing meditation practice enhances various attention abilities, evidence of sustained attention benefits from meditation has been inconsistent. Also, most studies that tested meditators’ sustained attention abilities used visual tasks. The extent to which the putative superior sustained attention in meditators might generalize to other stimulus modalities (e.g., auditory), and thus, whether meditation is associated with general attentional enhancement, is still unclear. Here, we compared regular meditators’ sustained attention performance to nonmeditator controls using the response switching task (RST) in unimodal visual and auditory conditions (Exp 1) as well as bimodal visual-auditory conditions (Exp 2). The RST involves continuous responding to frequent stimuli and switching button-responses with an infrequent target stimulus. Errors in responding to the target signify difficulties in sustaining attention. Our main results showed that meditators made significantly fewer errors, indicating fewer attentional lapses in sustained attention, than nonmeditators across all unimodal and bimodal RST conditions, a finding that has not been reported before in previous studies. These findings provide further evidence of a positive association between meditators and enhanced sustained attention and new evidence that suggest that meditation is associated with general, modality nonspecific, enhancement of attentional control.

Electrophysiological evidence for a self-processing advantage during audiovisual speech integration.

Previous electrophysiological studies have provided strong evidence for early multisensory integrative mechanisms during audiovisual speech perception. From these studies, one unanswered issue is whether hearing our own voice and seeing our own articulatory gestures facilitate speech perception, possibly through a better processing and integration of sensory inputs with our own sensory-motor knowledge. The present EEG study examined the impact of self-knowledge during the perception of auditory (A), visual (V) and audiovisual (AV) speech stimuli that were previously recorded from the participant or from a speaker he/she had never met. Audiovisual interactions were estimated by comparing N1 and P2 auditory evoked potentials during the bimodal condition (AV) with the sum of those observed in the unimodal conditions (A+V). In line with previous EEG studies, our results revealed an amplitude decrease of P2 auditory evoked potentials in AV compared to A+V conditions. Crucially, a temporal facilitation of N1 responses was observed during the visual perception of self speech movements compared to those of another speaker. This facilitation was negatively correlated with the saliency of visual stimuli. These results provide evidence for a temporal facilitation of the integration of auditory and visual speech signals when the visual situation involves our own speech gestures.

Statistical learning of speech sounds is most robust during the period of perceptual attunement

Although statistical learning has been shown to be a domain-general mechanism, its constraints, such as its interactions with perceptual development, are less well understood and discussed. This study is among the first to investigate the distributional learning of lexical pitch in non-tone-language-learning infants, exploring its interaction with language-specific perceptual attunement during the first 2years after birth. A total of 88 normally developing Dutch infants of 5, 11, and 14months were tested via a distributional learning paradigm and were familiarized on a unimodal or bimodal distribution of high-level versus high-falling tones in Mandarin Chinese. After familiarization, they were tested on a tonal contrast that shared equal distributional information in either modality. At 5months, infants in both conditions discriminated the contrast, whereas 11-month-olds showed discrimination only in the bimodal condition. By 14months, infants failed to discriminate the contrast in either condition. Results indicate interplay between infants' long-term linguistic experience throughout development and short-term distributional learning during the experiment, and they suggest that the influence of tonal distributional learning varies along the perceptual attunement trajectory, such that opportunities for distributional learning effects appear to be constrained in the beginning and at the end of perceptual attunement. The current study contributes to previous research by demonstrating an effect of age on learning from distributional cues.

Overestimation of threat from neutral faces and voices in social anxiety

Background and objectivesSocial anxiety (SA) is associated with a tendency to interpret social information in a more threatening manner. Most of the research in SA has focused on unimodal exploration (mostly based on facial expressions), thus neglecting the ubiquity of cross-modality. To fill this gap, the present study sought to explore whether SA influences the interpretation of facial and vocal expressions presented separately or jointly. MethodsTwenty-five high socially anxious (HSA) and 29 low socially anxious (LSA) participants completed a forced two-choice emotion identification task consisting of angry and neutral expressions conveyed by faces, voices or combined faces and voices. Participants had to identify the emotion (angry or neutral) of the presented cues as quickly and precisely as possible. ResultsOur results showed that, compared to LSA, HSA individuals show a higher propensity to misattribute anger to neutral expressions independent of cue modality and despite preserved decoding accuracy. We also found a cross-modal facilitation effect at the level of accuracy (i.e., higher accuracy in the bimodal condition compared to unimodal ones). However, such effect was not moderated by SA. LimitationsAlthough the HSA group showed clinical cut-off scores at the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, one limitation is that we did not administer diagnostic interviews. Upcoming studies may want to test whether these results can be generalized to a clinical population. ConclusionsThese findings highlight the usefulness of a cross-modal perspective to probe the specificity of biases in SA.

Does facilitation by phonological cuing in picture naming depend on the modality of the cue?

ABSTRACTBackground: Phonological cuing in spoken picture naming is widely used to improve word production accuracy in aphasic participants and to investigate word planning processes in psycholinguistic experiments with healthy participants. However, different paradigms and different modalities have been used across studies and populations, with some contradictory results.Aims: Here, we investigate whether and how the modality in which a phonological cue is delivered impacts on word production in picture naming tasks using the exact same paradigm with healthy and with aphasic participants.Methods & Procedure: In experiment 1, behavioural and electroencephalographic event-related potential (ERP) responses to auditory, visual and audiovisual cues in a picture naming task were investigated in healthy participants. In experiment 2, the impact of the same cue modalities was studied on errors and latencies in 15 aphasic participants.Outcomes & Results: The modality in which the cue is delivered influenced phonological facilitation effects in both populations, the audio modality being the most facilitative on production latencies in healthy participants and in participants with mild aphasia. No further gains were obtained by a double modality audiovisual cue on production latencies, whereas the double cues interfered with production accuracy in aphasic participants. ERP results not only were compatible with facilitation of phonological encoding in all experimental conditions but also showed modulation of a late encoding time period for both the visual and audiovisual cues, likely reflecting interference of the visual modality during monitoring or motor speech encoding. The latter observation is indeed coherent with the interference of the audiovisual modality that was observed on error rates in the more severely impaired aphasic participants.Conclusions: These results suggest that unimodal auditory cuing is the facilitatory condition, while visual cues in unimodal or bimodal conditions give rise to both facilitation and interference which manifest behaviourally depending on the balance of these opposing effects.

Benefit of Bimodal Stimulation with Cochlear Implant and Hearing Aid in Elderly Patients

Cochlear implant (CI) surgery is the standard of care for postlingual deafness in adults. A hearing aid (HA) for the non-implanted ear is normally used if residual hearing is available. There is limited data on bimodal stimulation in elderly patients. We compare the outcome of bimodal stimulation and analyzed the correlation of bimodal benefit and residual hearing in elderly patients. 22 patients≥70 years were implanted with a single-sided CI from 2002 till 2014. 17 patients use a HA on the non-implanted ear (bimodal). In a retrospective chart review we analyzed the audiological benefit (pure tone average, speech recognition). Time to follow-up was 6 month to 12 years. The subjective benefit was assessed using a structured questionnaire. The speech recognition (monosyllabic word testing in quiet @ 65 dB SPL) showed a score of 61% in bimodal condition vs. 53% with CI alone (p=0.35). There was no statistically significant correlation between residual hearing in the lower frequencies (250 Hz, 500 Hz and 1 kHz) and bimodal benefit. Most elderly patients benefit from bimodal stimulation. In quiet and in comparison with CI alone, most patients showed some improvement in word recognition scores using bimodal fitting, and all of them were using the contralateral hearing aid all day long. Postlingual deafened elderly patients fitted with a unilateral CI require a short rehabilitation period. In case of contralateral hearing aid fitting, regular control of the hearing aid should not be overlooked.

Evaluation of a wireless remote microphone in bimodal cochlear implant recipients

Objective: To evaluate the benefit of a wireless remote microphone (MM) for speech recognition in noise in bimodal adult cochlear implant (CI) users both in a test setting and in daily life. Design: This prospective study measured speech reception thresholds in noise in a repeated measures design with factors including bimodal hearing and MM use. The participants also had a 3-week trial period at home with the MM. Study sample: Thirteen post-lingually deafened adult bimodal CI users. Results: A significant improvement in SRT of 5.4 dB was found between the use of the CI with the MM and the use of the CI without the MM. By also pairing the MM to the hearing aid (HA) another improvement in SRT of 2.2 dB was found compared to the situation with the MM paired to the CI alone. In daily life, participants reported better speech perception for various challenging listening situations, when using the MM in the bimodal condition. Conclusion: There is a clear advantage of bimodal listening (CI and HA) compared to CI alone when applying advanced wireless remote microphone techniques to improve speech understanding in adult bimodal CI users.

The dynamics of multimodal integration: The averaging diffusion model.

We combine extant theories of evidence accumulation and multi-modal integration to develop an integrated framework for modeling multimodal integration as a process that unfolds in real time. Many studies have formulated sensory processing as a dynamic process where noisy samples of evidence are accumulated until a decision is made. However, these studies are often limited to a single sensory modality. Studies of multimodal stimulus integration have focused on how best to combine different sources of information to elicit a judgment. These studies are often limited to a single time point, typically after the integration process has occurred. We address these limitations by combining the two approaches. Experimentally, we present data that allow us to study the time course of evidence accumulation within each of the visual and auditory domains as well as in a bimodal condition. Theoretically, we develop a new Averaging Diffusion Model in which the decision variable is the mean rather than the sum of evidence samples and use it as a base for comparing three alternative models of multimodal integration, allowing us to assess the optimality of this integration. The outcome reveals rich individual differences in multimodal integration: while some subjects' data are consistent with adaptive optimal integration, reweighting sources of evidence as their relative reliability changes during evidence integration, others exhibit patterns inconsistent with optimality.

Learning novel musical pitch via distributional learning.

Because different musical scales use different sets of intervals and, hence, different musical pitches, how do music listeners learn those that are in their native musical system? One possibility is that musical pitches are acquired in the same way as phonemes, that is, via distributional learning, in which learners infer knowledge from the distributional structure of their input. In this study, we investigate whether novel musical pitch can be acquired distributionally. Nonmusician adults were trained on a continuum spanning a novel musical chord minimal pair (i.e., a novel chord and a mistuned version of that chord) in which the continuum was presented either in a bimodal distribution, with a modal peak at each end of the continuum, or in a unimodal distribution, with a single central modal peak. Discrimination of target minimal pairs was assessed before and after exposure to the distribution. Distributional learning would be said to occur if learners in the bimodal condition, but not those in the unimodal condition, showed evidence of learning, as indexed by improvement in discriminating the minimal pair from pretest to posttest. This indeed was the outcome, suggesting that the building blocks of musical melody-musical pitch-can be acquired using distributional learning. (PsycINFO Database Record

Bayesian Alternation during Tactile Augmentation.

A large number of studies suggest that the integration of multisensory signals by humans is well-described by Bayesian principles. However, there are very few reports about cue combination between a native and an augmented sense. In particular, we asked the question whether adult participants are able to integrate an augmented sensory cue with existing native sensory information. Hence for the purpose of this study, we build a tactile augmentation device. Consequently, we compared different hypotheses of how untrained adult participants combine information from a native and an augmented sense. In a two-interval forced choice (2 IFC) task, while subjects were blindfolded and seated on a rotating platform, our sensory augmentation device translated information on whole body yaw rotation to tactile stimulation. Three conditions were realized: tactile stimulation only (augmented condition), rotation only (native condition), and both augmented and native information (bimodal condition). Participants had to choose one out of two consecutive rotations with higher angular rotation. For the analysis, we fitted the participants' responses with a probit model and calculated the just notable difference (JND). Then, we compared several models for predicting bimodal from unimodal responses. An objective Bayesian alternation model yielded a better prediction (χred2 = 1.67) than the Bayesian integration model (χred2 = 4.34). Slightly higher accuracy showed a non-Bayesian winner takes all (WTA) model (χred2 = 1.64), which either used only native or only augmented values per subject for prediction. However, the performance of the Bayesian alternation model could be substantially improved (χred2 = 1.09) utilizing subjective weights obtained by a questionnaire. As a result, the subjective Bayesian alternation model predicted bimodal performance most accurately among all tested models. These results suggest that information from augmented and existing sensory modalities in untrained humans is combined via a subjective Bayesian alternation process. Therefore, we conclude that behavior in our bimodal condition is explained better by top down-subjective weighting than by bottom-up weighting based upon objective cue reliability.

Naïve Learners Show Cross-Domain Transfer after Distributional Learning: The Case of Lexical and Musical Pitch.

Experienced listeners of a particular acoustic cue in either speech or music appear to have an advantage when perceiving a similar cue in the other domain (i.e., they exhibit cross-domain transfer). One explanation for cross-domain transfer relates to the acquisition of the foundations of speech and music: if acquiring pitch-based elements in speech or music results in heightened attention to pitch in general, then cross-domain transfer of pitch may be observed, which may explain the cross-domain phenomenon seen among listeners of a tone language and listeners with musical training. Here, we investigate this possibility in naïve adult learners, who were trained to acquire pitch-based elements using a distributional learning paradigm, to provide a proof-of-concept for the explanation. Learners were exposed to a stimulus distribution spanning either a Thai lexical tone minimal pair or a novel musical chord minimal pair. Within each domain, the distribution highlights pitch to facilitate learning of two different sounds (Bimodal distribution) or the distribution minimizes pitch so that the input is inferred to be from a single sound (Unimodal distribution). Learning was assessed before and after exposure to the distribution using discrimination tasks with both Thai tone and musical chord minimal pairs. We hypothesize: (i) distributional learning for learners in both the tone and the chord distributions, that is, pre-to-post improvement in discrimination after exposure to the Bimodal but not the Unimodal distribution; and (ii) for both the tone and chord conditions, learners in the Bimodal conditions but not those in the Unimodal conditions will show cross-domain transfer, as indexed by improvement in discrimination of test items in the domain other than what they were trained on. The results support both hypotheses, suggesting that distributional learning is not only used to acquire the foundations of speech and music, but may also play a role in cross-domain transfer: as a result of learning primitives based on a particular cue, learners show heightened attention to that cue in any auditory signal.

Touching and Hearing Unseen Objects: Multisensory Effects on Scene Recognition.

In three experiments, we investigated the influence of object-specific sounds on haptic scene recognition without vision. Blindfolded participants had to recognize, through touch, spatial scenes comprising six objects that were placed on a round platform. Critically, in half of the trials, object-specific sounds were played when objects were touched (bimodal condition), while sounds were turned off in the other half of the trials (unimodal condition). After first exploring the scene, two objects were swapped and the task was to report, which of the objects swapped positions. In Experiment 1, geometrical objects and simple sounds were used, while in Experiment 2, the objects comprised toy animals that were matched with semantically compatible animal sounds. In Experiment 3, we replicated Experiment 1, but now a tactile-auditory object identification task preceded the experiment in which the participants learned to identify the objects based on tactile and auditory input. For each experiment, the results revealed a significant performance increase only after the switch from bimodal to unimodal. Thus, it appears that the release of bimodal identification, from audio-tactile to tactile-only produces a benefit that is not achieved when having the reversed order in which sound was added after having experience with haptic-only. We conclude that task-related factors other than mere bimodal identification cause the facilitation when switching from bimodal to unimodal conditions.

The Development of Audio-Visual Integration for Temporal Judgements.

Adults combine information from different sensory modalities to estimate object properties such as size or location. This process is optimal in that (i) sensory information is weighted according to relative reliability: more reliable estimates have more influence on the combined estimate and (ii) the combined estimate is more reliable than the component uni-modal estimates. Previous studies suggest that optimal sensory integration does not emerge until around 10 years of age. Younger children rely on a single modality or combine information using inappropriate sensory weights. Children aged 4–11 and adults completed a simple audio-visual task in which they reported either the number of beeps or the number of flashes in uni-modal and bi-modal conditions. In bi-modal trials, beeps and flashes differed in number by 0, 1 or 2. Mutual interactions between the sensory signals were evident at all ages: the reported number of flashes was influenced by the number of simultaneously presented beeps and vice versa. Furthermore, for all ages, the relative strength of these interactions was predicted by the relative reliabilities of the two modalities, in other words, all observers weighted the signals appropriately. The degree of cross-modal interaction decreased with age: the youngest observers could not ignore the task-irrelevant modality—they fully combined vision and audition such that they perceived equal numbers of flashes and beeps for bi-modal stimuli. Older observers showed much smaller effects of the task-irrelevant modality. Do these interactions reflect optimal integration? Full or partial cross-modal integration predicts improved reliability in bi-modal conditions. In contrast, switching between modalities reduces reliability. Model comparison suggests that older observers employed partial integration, whereas younger observers (up to around 8 years) did not integrate, but followed a sub-optimal switching strategy, responding according to either visual or auditory information on each trial.

Utility of bilateral acoustic hearing in combination with electrical stimulation provided by the cochlear implant

Objective: The aim of the study was to quantify the benefit provided by having access to amplified acoustic hearing in the implanted ear for use in combination with contralateral acoustic hearing and the electrical stimulation provided by the cochlear implant. Design: Measures of spatial and non-spatial hearing abilities were obtained to compare performance obtained with different configurations of acoustic hearing in combination with electrical stimulation. In the combined listening condition participants had access to bilateral acoustic hearing whereas the bimodal condition used acoustic hearing contralateral to the implanted ear only. Experience was provided with each of the listening conditions using a repeated-measures A-B-B-A experimental design. Study sample: Sixteen post-linguistically hearing-impaired adults participated in the study. Results: Group mean benefit was obtained with use of the combined mode on measures of speech recognition in coincident speech in noise, localization ability, subjective ratings of real-world benefit, and musical sound quality ratings. Conclusions: Access to bilateral acoustic hearing after cochlear implantation provides significant benefit on a range of functional measures.

Deficits in voice and multisensory processing in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare neurodevelopmental and genetic disorder that is characterized by various expression of endocrine, cognitive and behavioral problems, among which a true obsession for food and a deficit of satiety that leads to hyperphagia and severe obesity. Neuropsychological studies have reported that PWS display altered social interactions with a specific weakness in interpreting social information and in responding to them, a symptom closed to that observed in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Based on the hypothesis that atypical multisensory integration such as face and voice interactions would contribute in PWS to social impairment we investigate the abilities of PWS to process communication signals including the human voice. Patients with PWS recruited from the national reference center for PWS performed a simple detection task of stimuli presented in an uni-o or bimodal condition, as well as a voice discrimination task. Compared to control typically developing (TD) individuals, PWS present a specific deficit in discriminating human voices from environmental sounds. Further, PWS present a much lower multisensory benefits with an absence of violation of the race model indicating that multisensory information do not converge and interact prior to the initiation of the behavioral response. All the deficits observed in PWS were stronger for the subgroup of patients suffering from Uniparental Disomy, a population known to be more sensitive to ASD. Altogether, our study suggests that the deficits in social behavior observed in PWS derive at least partly from an impairment in deciphering the social information carried by voice signals, face signals, and the combination of both. In addition, our work is in agreement with the brain imaging studies revealing an alteration in PWS of the “social brain network” including the STS region involved in processing human voices.