Perception of Music in Cochlear Implantees

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to ascertain the perception of music in cochlear implant users, 14 Nucleus system SPEAK users and 2 Clarion CIS users, with regard to the basic elements of music. Five tests were given: (1) Rhythm discrimination test, (2) Pitch discrimination Test, (3) Musical Instrument Timbre Identification Test, (4) Melody Identification Test, and (5) Acappella Singing Identification Test. Results showed that the most subjects were able to differentiate rhythm patterns with above 90% accuracy. The mean score was 51.8% for pitch, 25.8% for musical instrument timbre identification. The subjects identified the piano with greatest accuracy followed by xylopyone, and a person humming least accurately. The string instruments such as violin, guiter were identified with intermediate accuracy. For the identification of melodies, the mean score was 11.8%; however, with the same melody, when it was sung in acappella, the score improved to 71.4%. Those results indicated that the musical elements of pitch and timbre that requires the recognition of spectrum envelope were hard to be identified through the current cochlear implant system. However, the rhythm were well perceived due to the time intensity information. Neither the correlation was found between the speech perception ability and the musical perception, nor the difference in performance between the cochlear prosthesis was observed.