The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of structured training on recognition and appraisal of the timbre (tone quality) of musical instruments by postlingually deafened cochlear implant recipients. Twenty-four implant users (Nucleus C124M) were randomly assigned to a control or a training group. The control group experienced only incidental exposure to music in their usual daily routine. The training group participated in 12 weeks of training delivered via a laptop computer in which they were introduced to excerpts of musical instruments representing three frequency ranges and four instrumental families. Those implant recipients assigned to the training group showed significant improvement in timbre recognition (p < .0001) and timbre appraisal (p < .02) compared to the control group. Correlations between timbre measures and speech perception measures are discussed.
The purpose of this study was to compare melody recognition and pitch perception of adult cochlear implant recipients and normal-hearing adults and to identify factors that influence the ability of implant users to recognize familiar melodies. Forty-nine experienced cochlear implant recipients and 18 normal-hearing adults were tested on familiar melody recognition. The normal-hearing adults were significantly (p < 0.0001) more accurate than implant recipients. Implant recipients showed considerable variability in perception of complex tones and pure tones. There were significant negative correlations between melody recognition, age at the time of testing, length of profound deafness and complex-tone perception, and significant positive relations between melody recognition and speech recognition scores.
AbstractAbstractThe purpose of this study was to compare melody recognition and pitch perception of adult cochlear implant recipients and normal-hearing adults and to identify factors that influence the ability of implant users to recognize familiar melodies. Forty-nine experienced cochlear implant recipients and 18 normal-hearing adults were tested on familiar melody recognition. The normal-hearing adults were significantly (p < 0.0001) more accurate than implant recipients. Implant recipients showed considerable variability in perception of complex tones and pure tones. There were significant negative correlations between melody recognition, age at the time of testing, length of profound deafness and complex-tone perception, and significant positive relations between melody recognition and speech recognition scores.Keywords: melody recognitionpitch discriminationcochlear implantsmusic perception
This study examines the predictive relations among a variety of measures of electrode function in multichannel cochlear implant users and that stimulation site’s ability to transmit speech information. A within-subject design was used in which the relative ability of individual channels to transmit speech information was estimated by the correlational method for speech recognition. Individual electrode function measures included behavioral dynamic range, slope of the electrically evoked compound action potential (EAP) input/output function, and EAP recovery from forward masking. No consistent relations were found between any of these measures and the measures of speech transmission.
The purpose of this study was to compare postlingually deafened cochlear implant recipients and normal-hearing adults on timbre (tone quality) recognition and appraisal of 8 musical instruments representing 3 frequency ranges and 4 instrumental families. The implant recipients were significantly less accurate than the normal-hearing adults on timbre recognition. The implant recipients gave significantly poorer ratings than did the normal-hearing adults to those instruments played in the higher frequency range and to those from the string family. The timbre measures were weakly correlated with speech perception measures, but were significantly correlated with 3 cognitive measures of sequential processing.
Music perception is important to cochlear implant patients, but little effort has been devoted to improving signal processing for music. In this preliminary investigation, we probed the importance of number of channels and stimulus rate. We asked eight users of the Clarion cochlear implant to rate music quality on a scale from 0 to 100 on three different types of music (country and western, pop and classical). Patients rated eight- and one-channel processors running at a fast and slow rate. The stimulus rate was 200 pps for the slow rate. For the eight-channel condition, the fast rate varied from 394 to 765 pps. For the one-channel condition, the fast rate varied from 2601 to 4335 pps. Results indicated that the eight-channel condition was uniformly rated higher than the one-channel condition. However, the results for stimulus rate were less clear. No patients assigned higher ratings with the slow rate, but only three subjects assigned higher ratings with the fast rate. We conclude that music perception can be influenced and probably improved by signal processing. The number of channels, or perhaps spectral representation, is critical for music appreciation by cochlear implant recipients.
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a method of estimating the relative “weight” that a multichannel cochlear implant user places on individual channels, indicating its contribution to overall speech recognition. The correlational method as applied to speech recognition was used both with normal-hearing listeners and with cochlear implant users fitted with six-channel speech processors. Speech was divided into frequency bands corresponding to the bands of the processor and a randomly chosen level of corresponding filtered noise was added to each channel on each trial. Channels in which the signal-to-noise ratio was more highly correlated with performance have higher weights, and conversely, channels in which the correlations were smaller have lower weights. Normal-hearing listeners showed approximately equal weights across frequency bands. In contrast, cochlear implant users showed unequal weighting across bands, and varied from individual to individual with some channels apparently not contributing significantly to speech recognition. To validate these channel weights, individual channels were removed and speech recognition in quiet was tested. A strong correlation was found between the relative weight of the channel removed and the decrease in speech recognition, thus providing support for use of the correlational method for cochlear implant users.
Music perception is important to cochlear implant patients, but little effort has been devoted to improving signal processing for music. In this preliminary investigation, we probed the importance of number of channels and stimulus rate. We asked eight users of the Clarion cochlear implant to rate music quality on a scale from 0 to 100 on three different types of music (country and western, pop and classical). Patients rated eight- and one-channel processors running at a fast and slow rate. The stimulus rate was 200 pps for the slow rate. For the eight-channel condition, the fast rate varied from 394 to 765 pps. For the one-channel condition, the fast rate varied from 2601 to 4335 pps. Results indicated that the eight-channel condition was uniformly rated higher than the one-channel condition. However, the results for stimulus rate were less clear. No patients assigned higher ratings with the slow rate, but only three subjects assigned higher ratings with the fast rate. We conclude that music perception can be influenced and probably improved by signal processing. The number of channels, or perhaps spectral representation, is critical for music appreciation by cochlear implant recipients.
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