The Role of Spectral and Temporal Cues in Voice Gender Discrimination by Normal-Hearing Listeners and Cochlear Implant Users

The present study investigated the relative importance of temporal and spectral cues in voice gender discrimination and vowel recognition by normal-hearing subjects listening to an acoustic simulation of cochlear implant speech processing and by cochlear implant users. In the simulation, the number of speech processing channels ranged from 4 to 32, thereby varying the spectral resolution; the cutoff frequencies of the channels envelope filters ranged from 20 to 320 Hz, thereby manipulating the available temporal cues. For normal-hearing subjects, results showed that both voice gender discrimination and vowel recognition scores improved as the number of spectral channels was increased. When only 4 spectral channels were available, voice gender discrimination significantly improved as the envelope filter cutoff frequency was increased from 20 to 320 Hz. For all spectral conditions, increasing the amount of temporal information had no significant effect on vowel recognition. Both voice gender discrimination and vowel recognition scores were highly variable among implant users. The performance of cochlear implant listeners was similar to that of normal-hearing subjects listening to comparable speech processing (4–8 spectral channels). The results suggest that both spectral and temporal cues contribute to voice gender discrimination and that temporal cues are especially important for cochlear implant users to identify the voice gender when there is reduced spectral resolution.     

Correlations Between Pitch and Phoneme Perception in Cochlear Implant Users and Their Normal Hearing Peers

This study examined correlations between pitch and phoneme perception for nine cochlear implant users and nine normal hearing listeners. Pure tone frequency discrimination thresholds were measured for frequencies of 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz. Complex tone fundamental frequency (F0) discrimination thresholds were measured for F0s of 110, 220, and 440 Hz. The effects of amplitude and frequency roving were measured under the rationale that individuals who are robust to such perturbations would perform better on phoneme perception measures. Phoneme identification was measured using consonant and vowel materials in quiet, in stationary speech-shaped noise (SSN), in spectrally notched SSN, and in temporally gated SSN. Cochlear implant pure tone frequency discrimination thresholds ranged between 1.5 and 9.9 %, while cochlear implant complex tone F0 discrimination thresholds ranged between 2.6 and 28.5 %. On average, cochlear implant users had 5.3 dB of masking release for consonants and 8.4 dB of masking release for vowels when measured in temporally gated SSN compared to stationary SSN. Correlations with phoneme identification measures were generally higher for complex tone discrimination measures than for pure tone discrimination measures. Correlations with phoneme identification measures were also generally higher for pitch perception measures that included amplitude and frequency roving. The strongest correlations were observed for measures of complex tone F0 discrimination with phoneme identification in temporally gated SSN. The results of this study suggest that musical training or signal processing strategies that improve F0 discrimination should improve consonant identification in fluctuating noise.     

Free field frequency discrimination abilities of cochlear implant users

Poor music perception abilities of cochlear implant users may be attributed to limited pitch resolution afforded by the implant system. We investigated (i) what the typical frequency discrimination thresholds of cochlear implant users would be in free field listening conditions and (ii) whether frequency discrimination behaviour would be influenced by the position of the reference frequency relative to the frequency response of filters selected from the user's map. Frequency discrimination thresholds were determined according to an adaptive two-alternative forced choice (2AFC) method, using pure tones delivered in free field conditions. Results showed that finer frequency resolution than previously thought could be available to cochlear implant users. Results are interpreted in terms of intermediate pitch percepts possibly created by near-simultaneous activation of adjacent electrodes, resulting in overlapping neural populations to be stimulated. The findings may contribute to strategies aiming to improve music perception abilities of cochlear implant users.     

An investigation into the effect of limiting the frequency bandwidth of speech on speech recognition in adult cochlear implant users

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the limited-frequency bandwidth employed by telephones (300-3400 Hz) on speech recognition in adult cochlear implant users. The Four Alternative Auditory Feature (FAAF) test was used in four conditions: unfiltered and in three filtered conditions of 300-4500 Hz, 300-3400 Hz and 300-2500 Hz. Ten subjects implanted with the Nucleus CI24M device and 10 normal-hearing listeners were assessed to examine differences between word discrimination scores in each condition. Scores obtained from the 300-3400-Hz and 300-2500-Hz filtered conditions were significantly worse than those with unfiltered speech for the cochlear implant subjects, decreasing by 17.7% and 21.4%, respectively, from scores with unfiltered speech. By contrast, the normal-hearing listeners did not experience difficulties in discriminating between words in any of the conditions. Analysis of the word errors demonstrated that the reduction in implant subject scores with bandwidth arose from errors in place of articulation. Filtering speech in this way has a significant effect on speech recognition for cochlear implant subjects but not normal-hearing listeners. Hence, the limitations of the normal telephone bandwidth can be expected to have a negative effect on speech recognition for cochlear implant users using the telephone.     

An investigation into the effect of limiting the frequency bandwidth of speech on speech recognition in adult cochlear implant users

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the limited-frequency bandwidth employed by telephones (300-3400Hz) on speech recognition in adult cochlear implant users. The Four Alternative Auditory Feature (FAAF) test was used in four conditions: unfiltered and in three filtered conditions of 300-4500Hz, 300-3400Hz and 300-2500Hz. Ten subjects implanted with the Nucleus C124M device and 10 normal-hearing listeners were assessed to examine differences between word discrimination scores in each condition. Scores obtained from the 300-3400-Hz and 300-2500-Hz filtered conditions were significantly worse than those with unfiltered speech for the cochlear implant subjects, decreasing by 17.7% and 21.4%, respectively, from scores with unfiltered speech. By contrast, the normal-hearing listeners did not experience difficulties in discriminating between words in any of the conditions. Analysis of the word errors demonstrated that the reduction in implant subject scores with bandwidth arose from errors in place of articulation. Filtering speech in this way has a significant effect on speech recognition for cochlear implant subjects but not normal-hearing listeners. Hence, the limitations of the normal telephone bandwidth can be expected to have a negative effect on speech recognition for cochlear implant users using the telephone.     

Accuracy of cochlear implant recipients on pitch perception, melody recognition, and speech reception in noise

OBJECTIVE: The purposes of this study were to (a) examine the accuracy of cochlear implant recipients who use different types of devices and signal processing strategies on pitch ranking as a function of size of interval and frequency range and (b) to examine the relations between this pitch perception measure and demographic variables, melody recognition, and speech reception in background noise. DESIGN: One hundred fourteen cochlear implant users and 21 normal-hearing adults were tested on a pitch discrimination task (pitch ranking) that required them to determine direction of pitch change as a function of base frequency and interval size. Three groups were tested: (a) long electrode cochlear implant users (N = 101); (b) short electrode users that received acoustic plus electrical stimulation (A+E) (N = 13); and (c) a normal-hearing (NH) comparison group (N = 21). Pitch ranking was tested at standard frequencies of 131 to 1048 Hz, and the size of the pitch-change intervals ranged from 1 to 4 semitones. A generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) was fit to predict pitch ranking and to determine if group differences exist as a function of base frequency and interval size. Overall significance effects were measured with Chi-square tests and individual effects were measured with t-tests. Pitch ranking accuracy was correlated with demographic measures (age at time of testing, length of profound deafness, months of implant use), frequency difference limens, familiar melody recognition, and two measures of speech reception in noise. RESULTS: The long electrode recipients performed significantly poorer on pitch discrimination than the NH and A+E group. The A+E users performed similarly to the NH listeners as a function of interval size in the lower base frequency range, but their pitch discrimination scores deteriorated slightly in the higher frequency range. The long electrode recipients, although less accurate than participants in the NH and A+E groups, tended to perform with greater accuracy within the higher frequency range. There were statistically significant correlations between pitch ranking and familiar melody recognition as well as with pure-tone frequency difference limens at 200 and 400 Hz. CONCLUSIONS: Low-frequency acoustic hearing improves pitch discrimination as compared with traditional, electric-only cochlear implants. These findings have implications for musical tasks such as familiar melody recognition.     

Deficits in auditory frequency discrimination and speech recognition in cochlear implant users

Abstract

Objectives

Speech recognition varies considerably following cochlear implantation for reasons that are still poorly understood. Considering the role of frequency discrimination in normal speech recognition, the aim of this study was to investigate the association between deficits in auditory frequency discrimination and speech recognition in cochlear implant users.

Methods

Frequency discrimination thresholds and speech recognition were assessed in a group of 20 cochlear implant users and 16 normally hearing controls.

Results

Based on their results on the speech recognition task, the cochlear implant users were categorized either as proficient (n = 10) or non-proficient users (n = 10). The non-proficient cochlear implant users had poorer auditory frequency discrimination compared to the normal hearing participants and proficient cochlear implant users (both P < 0.05). No significant difference was found between the proficient cochlear implant users and the normally hearing group (P > 0.05). Furthermore, a bivariate correlation analysis revealed a relationship between speech recognition and frequency discrimination.

Conclusions

The present findings suggest an association between auditory frequency discrimination and speech recognition proficiency in cochlear implant users. Although no causal link can be drawn from these data, possible reasons for this association are discussed.     

Vocal emotion recognition by normal-hearing listeners and cochlear implant users

The present study investigated the ability of normal-hearing listeners and cochlear implant users to recognize vocal emotions. Sentences were produced by 1 male and 1 female talker according to 5 target emotions: angry, anxious, happy, sad, and neutral. Overall amplitude differences between the stimuli were either preserved or normalized. In experiment 1, vocal emotion recognition was measured in normal-hearing and cochlear implant listeners; cochlear implant subjects were tested using their clinically assigned processors. When overall amplitude cues were preserved, normal-hearing listeners achieved near-perfect performance, whereas listeners with cochlear implant recognized less than half of the target emotions. Removing the overall amplitude cues significantly worsened mean normal-hearing and cochlear implant performance. In experiment 2, vocal emotion recognition was measured in listeners with cochlear implant as a function of the number of channels (from 1 to 8) and envelope filter cutoff frequency (50 vs 400 Hz) in experimental speech processors. In experiment 3, vocal emotion recognition was measured in normal-hearing listeners as a function of the number of channels (from 1 to 16) and envelope filter cutoff frequency (50 vs 500 Hz) in acoustic cochlear implant simulations. Results from experiments 2 and 3 showed that both cochlear implant and normal-hearing performance significantly improved as the number of channels or the envelope filter cutoff frequency was increased. The results suggest that spectral, temporal, and overall amplitude cues each contribute to vocal emotion recognition. The poorer cochlear implant performance is most likely attributable to the lack of salient pitch cues and the limited functional spectral resolution.     

Multichannel electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve in man. I. Basic psychophysics

Basic psychophysical measurements were obtained from three patients implanted with multichannel cochlear implants. This paper presents measurements from stimulation of a single channel at a time (either monopolar or bipolar). The shape of the threshold vs. frequency curve can be partially related to the membrane biophysics of the remaining spiral ganglion and/or dendrites. Nerve survival in the region of the electrode may produce some increase in the dynamic range on that electrode. Loudness was related to the stimulus amplitude by a power law with exponents between 1.6 and 3.4, depending on frequency. Intensity discrimination was better than for normal auditory stimulation, but not enough to offset the small dynamic range for electrical stimulation. Measures of temporal integration were comparable to normals, indicating a central mechanism that is still intact in implant patients. No frequency analysis of the electrical signal was observed. Each electrode produced a unique pitch sensation, but they were not simply related to the tonotopic position of the stimulated electrode. Pitch increased over more than 4 octaves (for one patient) as the frequency was increased from 100 to 300 Hz, but above 300 Hz no pitch change was observed. Possibly the major limitation of single channel cochlear implants is the 1–2 ms integration time (probably due to the capacitative properties of the nerve membrane which acts as a low-pass filter at 100 Hz) Another limitation of electrical stimulation is that there is no spectral analysis of the electrical waveform so that temporal waveform alone determines the effective stimulus.     

Pitch scaling and speech understanding by patients who use the Ineraid cochlear implant

Pitch scaling was assessed for 10 normal-hearing listeners and 8 patients who use the Ineraid multichannel cochlear implant. For two patients who were excellent users of the prosthesis, pitch increased over a wide range of frequencies (100 Hz to 2333-3000 Hz). For three patients who were above average users of the prosthesis, pitch increased with frequency over a smaller range (100 Hz to 1200-2300 Hz). For three patients who demonstrated poor word recognition ability, pitch increased with frequency over a very small range (100 Hz to 600-1000 Hz). These results suggest that differences in speech understanding among patients who use the Ineraid may be accounted for, in part, by the range of pitch available through the implant.     

Speech-evoked cortical potentials and speech recognition in cochlear implant users

Processing in the auditory cortex may play a role in the unexplained variability in cochlear implant benefit. P300 and N1/P2 were elicited in post-lingually deaf cochlear implant users wearing a Nucleus multichannel cochlear implant. Four sound contrasts were presented (500-1,000 Hz, /ba/-/da/, /ba/-/pa/ and /i/-/a/). N1 and P2 were present in all subjects for all conditions. Prolonged N1, P2 and P300 latencies were found in the cochlear implant group compared to a control group of subjects with normal hearing. Cochlear implant users show smaller amplitudes of N1 for all the speech signals as well as smaller amplitudes of P2 for the consonants compared to the controls. P300 results of the cochlear implant users were compared to behavioural results of speech recognition testing. A relation was found between P300 amplitude and magnitude for the 500-1,000 Hz and /i/-/a/ contrasts and behavioural speech recognition in cochlear implant users. The results suggest that P300 measurements are useful and have additional value to speech recognition evaluations in cochlear implant users.     

Place and Time Coding of Frequency in the Peripheral Auditory System: Some Physiological Pros and Cons

Evidence for and against classical theories of ‘place’ and ‘period’ mechanisms for the coding of frequency, and the modifications of the theories invoked to account for the pitch of ‘residue’ and other types of stimuli, are examined in the light of physiological data. These include new data on the temporal discharge patterns of cochlear nerve fibres under stimulation with two-tone complexes, harmonic and inharmonic three-tone complexes, and five-tone complexes of differing relative phase. They show, in particular, that certain arguments against ‘period’ coding of ‘residue’ pitch are invalid. The interspike intervals in the discharge patterns of cochlear fibres under these conditions are consistent with the pitches heard. On the other hand, the classical ‘period’ theory needs to be modified to take into account the normally relatively sharp frequency selectivity of cochlear fibres, and requires certain inefficiencies on the part of the central processor for pitch.

Comparison of measures of cochlear fibre frequency selectivity with analogous psychophysical data in man, including those on the ‘existence region’ of ‘residue’ pitch, suggests that ‘residue’-type stimuli judged to be tonal in quality could both: (a) be sufficiently resolved spectrally at the cochlear fibre level to serve as input to any of the current spectral ‘pattern recognition’ mechanisms proposed for the pitch extraction of complex signals, and also, (b) could generate patterns of temporal discharge reflecting enough waveform interaction between the harmonics to convey the pitch heard, because of the shape of the cochlear filters. (This conclusion might have to be qualified in the light of further physiological experiments on the ‘second effect’ of pitch shift.)

The present evidence, both psychophysical and physiological, suggests the following synthesis: musical interval recognition and relatively crude frequency discrimination can be accomplished by trained observers on signals where the frequency appears to be coded exclusively in terms of temporal information. However, the pitch quality of these signals is judged to be poor or absent. Likewise, signals, apparently coded exclusively by ‘place’ mechanisms, while having tonality, allow relatively crude frequency discrimination and judgment of musical intervals. With the possible exception of psychophysical data on the phenomenon of diplacusis, the present evidence cannot exclude the possibility that the central pitch extractor mechanism utilizes both the ‘place’ and ‘period’ cues produced by pure-tone signals (below 5 kHz) and ‘residue’-type signals, both signals evoking strong pitch and fine acuity of frequency discrimination. The degree of salience of a signal's pitch could well depend on the coherence of the two types of cue.

However, the greatest obstacle to the acceptance of ‘place’ coding mechanisms for frequency, particularly of the frequency components of a complex sound, is the restricted dynamic range of the peripheral elements of the auditory nervous system. Because of this, it is not clear how differences in the spectral energy distribution in signals at medium to high sound levels can be established in terms of patterns of mean discharge rate across the cochlear fibre array. At high sound levels, physiological evidence suggests that the discharge rates of the majority of stimulated fibres will be saturated, whereas psychophysical evidence suggests that the coding of the frequency and the relative level of even single-component signals can be carried out over a wide dynamic range in the absence of cues derived from spread of activity across the fibre array. Some new data, however, indicate that this problem may be circumvented at the cochlear nucleus level, but the coding mechanisms involved at the primary neurone level are obscure. One intriguing possibility exists that the auditory nervous system may utilize the fine temporal structure of cochlear fibre discharge patterns for the transmission of ‘place’ information.     

Temporal Regularity Detection and Rate Discrimination in Cochlear-Implant Listeners

Cochlear implants (CIs) convey fundamental-frequency information using primarily temporal cues. However, temporal pitch perception in CI users is weak and, when measured using rate discrimination tasks, deteriorates markedly as the rate increases beyond 300 pulses-per-second. Rate pitch may be weak because the electrical stimulation of the surviving neural population of the implant recipient may not allow accurate coding of inter-pulse time intervals. If so, this phenomenon should prevent listeners from detecting when a pulse train is physically temporally jittered. Performance in a jitter detection task was compared to that in a rate-pitch discrimination task. Stimuli were delivered using direct stimulation in cochlear implants, on a mid-array and an apical electrode, and at two different rates (100 and 300 pps). Average performance on both tasks was worse at the higher pulse rate and did not depend on electrode. However, there was a large variability across and within listeners that did not correlate between the two tasks, suggesting that rate-pitch judgement and regularity detection are to some extent limited by task-specific processes. Simulations with filtered pulse trains presented to NH listeners yielded broadly similar results, except that, for the rate discrimination task, the difference between performance with 100- and 300-pps base rates was smaller than observed for CI users.     

Combined electric and acoustic hearing performance with Zebra® speech processor: Speech reception,place, and temporal coding evaluation

Abstract

Objective

To assess the auditory performance of Digisonic^® cochlear implant users with electric stimulation (ES) and electro-acoustic stimulation (EAS) with special attention to the processing of low-frequency temporal fine structure.

Method

Six patients implanted with a Digisonic^® SP implant and showing low-frequency residual hearing were fitted with the Zebra^® speech processor providing both electric and acoustic stimulation. Assessment consisted of monosyllabic speech identification tests in quiet and in noise at different presentation levels, and a pitch discrimination task using harmonic and disharmonic intonating complex sounds ( ). These tests investigate place and time coding through pitch discrimination. All tasks were performed with ES only and with EAS.

Results

Speech results in noise showed significant improvement with EAS when compared to ES. Whereas EAS did not yield better results in the harmonic intonation test, the improvements in the disharmonic intonation test were remarkable, suggesting better coding of pitch cues requiring phase locking.

Discussion

These results suggest that patients with residual hearing in the low-frequency range still have good phase-locking capacities, allowing them to process fine temporal information. ES relies mainly on place coding but provides poor low-frequency temporal coding, whereas EAS also provides temporal coding in the low-frequency range. Patients with residual phase-locking capacities can make use of these cues.     

Changes in Pitch with a Cochlear Implant Over Time

In the normal auditory system, the perceived pitch of a tone is closely linked to the cochlear place of vibration. It has generally been assumed that high-rate electrical stimulation by a cochlear implant electrode also evokes a pitch sensation corresponding to the electrode’s cochlear place (“place” code) and stimulation rate (“temporal” code). However, other factors may affect electric pitch sensation, such as a substantial loss of nearby nerve fibers or even higher-level perceptual changes due to experience. The goals of this study were to measure electric pitch sensations in hybrid (short-electrode) cochlear implant patients and to examine which factors might contribute to the perceived pitch. To look at effects of experience, electric pitch sensations were compared with acoustic tone references presented to the non-implanted ear at various stages of implant use, ranging from hookup to 5 years. Here, we show that electric pitch perception often shifts in frequency, sometimes by as much as two octaves, during the first few years of implant use. Additional pitch measurements in more recently implanted patients at shorter time intervals up to 1 year of implant use suggest two likely contributions to these observed pitch shifts: intersession variability (up to one octave) and slow, systematic changes over time. We also found that the early pitch sensations for a constant electrode location can vary greatly across subjects and that these variations are strongly correlated with speech reception performance. Specifically, patients with an early low-pitch sensation tend to perform poorly with the implant compared to those with an early high-pitch sensation, which may be linked to less nerve survival in the basal end of the cochlea in the low-pitch patients. In contrast, late pitch sensations show no correlation with speech perception. These results together suggest that early pitch sensations may more closely reflect peripheral innervation patterns, while later pitch sensations may reflect higher-level, experience-dependent changes. These pitch shifts over time not only raise questions for strict place-based theories of pitch perception, but also imply that experience may have a greater influence on cochlear implant perception than previously thought.     

Review of the roles of temporal and place coding of frequency in speech discrimination.

Numerous studies have demonstrated that the frequency spectrum of sounds is represented in the neural code of single auditory nerve fibres both spatially and temporally, but few experiments have been designed to test which of these two representations of frequency is used in the discrimination of complex sounds such as speech and music. This paper reviews the roles of place and temporal coding of frequency in the nervous system as a basis for frequency discrimination of complex sounds such as those in speech. Animal studies based on frequency analysis in the cochlea have shown that the place code changes systematically as a function of sound intensity and therefore lacks the robustness required to explain pitch perception (in humans), which is nearly independent of sound intensity. Further indication that the place principle plays a minor role in discrimination of speech comes from observations that signs of impairment of the spectral analysis in the cochlea in some individuals are not associated with impairments in speech discrimination. The importance of temporal coding is supported by the observation that injuries to the auditory nerve, assumed to impair temporal coherence of the discharges of auditory nerve fibres, are associated with grave impairments in speech discrimination. These observations indicate that temporal coding of sounds is more important for discrimination of speech than place coding. The implications of these findings for the design of prostheses such as cochlear implants are discussed.     

Music perception with temporal cues in acoustic and electric hearing

OBJECTIVE: The first specific aim of the present study is to compare the ability of normal-hearing and cochlear implant listeners to use temporal cues in three music perception tasks: tempo discrimination, rhythmic pattern identification, and melody identification. The second aim is to identify the relative contribution of temporal and spectral cues to melody recognition in acoustic and electric hearing. DESIGN: Both normal-hearing and cochlear implant listeners participated in the experiments. Tempo discrimination was measured in a two-interval forced-choice procedure in which subjects were asked to choose the faster tempo at four standard tempo conditions (60, 80, 100, and 120 beats per minute). For rhythmic pattern identification, seven different rhythmic patterns were created and subjects were asked to read and choose the musical notation displayed on the screen that corresponded to the rhythmic pattern presented. Melody identification was evaluated with two sets of 12 familiar melodies. One set contained both rhythm and melody information (rhythm condition), whereas the other set contained only melody information (no-rhythm condition). Melody stimuli were also processed to extract the slowly varying temporal envelope from 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64 frequency bands, to create cochlear implant simulations. Subjects listened to a melody and had to respond by choosing one of the 12 names corresponding to the melodies displayed on a computer screen. RESULTS: In tempo discrimination, the cochlear implant listeners performed similarly to the normal-hearing listeners with rate discrimination difference limens obtained at 4-6 beats per minute. In rhythmic pattern identification, the cochlear implant listeners performed 5-25 percentage points poorer than the normal-hearing listeners. The normal-hearing listeners achieved perfect scores in melody identification with and without the rhythmic cues. However, the cochlear implant listeners performed significantly poorer than the normal-hearing listeners in both rhythm and no-rhythm conditions. The simulation results from normal-hearing listeners showed a relatively high level of performance for all numbers of frequency bands in the rhythm condition but required as many as 32 bands in the no-rhythm condition. CONCLUSIONS: Cochlear-implant listeners performed normally in tempo discrimination, but significantly poorer than normal-hearing listeners in rhythmic pattern identification and melody recognition. While both temporal (rhythmic) and spectral (pitch) cues contribute to melody recognition, cochlear-implant listeners mostly relied on the rhythmic cues for melody recognition. Without the rhythmic cues, high spectral resolution with as many as 32 bands was needed for melody recognition for normal-hearing listeners. This result indicates that the present cochlear implants provide sufficient spectral cues to support speech recognition in quiet, but they are not adequate to support music perception. Increasing the number of functional channels and improved encoding of the fine structure information are necessary to improve music perception for cochlear implant listeners.     

Physiological and psychophysical correlates of temporal processes in hearing

Discharges of auditory nerve fibers are synchronized to stimulus frequencies below 4-5 kHz. The phase-locking phenomenon has been studied in considerable detail in several animal species. Although strikingly close correspondences exist between phase-locking behavior in animals and human perceptual performance on certain tasks, there is still no clear evidence that the human brain actually bases perceptual decisions on temporally encoded frequency information. The alternative to temporal coding is rate-place coding, in which frequency is assigned on the basis of peaks in cochlear excitation patterns. This paper reviews pertinent physiological, psychophysical and modeling data in three classes of experiment whose results are explanable in terms of both rate-place and temporal processing of neural responses. The experiments deal with the pitch of complex tones, vowel identification, and pure-tone frequency discrimination. The data described here suggest that temporal models of frequency coding compete well with and in some cases offer a more parsimonious explanation of perceptual performance than rate-place codes do, particularly at low and middle frequencies. A potentially important implication of the analyses conducted here is that humans may not code frequency information in synchronized activity as well as other species. The data suggest that within limits the human ear is capable of using either temporal and rate-place frequency codes, and that the specific code employed by the perceptual processor is task-dependent.     

From TEMPO+ to OPUS 2: what can music tests tell us about processor upgrades?

Tests for quantifying the music perception abilities of cochlear implant users are currently being developed and trialled at the South of England Cochlear Implant Centre. In addition to measures of speech perception, tests of rhythm, and pitch have been administered to MED-EL C40+ implant users before and after upgrading from the TEMPO+ processor with continuous interleaved sampling strategy to the OPUS 2 processor with fine structure processing strategy, with the aims of comparing device performance and evaluating the potential of music perception tests for informing processor upgrades and tuning. Eight experienced adult C40+ implant recipients performed tests of rhythm and pitch discrimination using the TEMPO+ processor and, after a minimum of 6 weeks acclimatization, using the OPUS 2 processor. Stimuli included piano and sine tones in two note ranges for the pitch tasks, and drum beats for the rhythm task. Rhythm, pitch, and speech perception scores were comparable for both processors. An effect of note range was observed (z = -2.52, p = 0.008 (two-tailed), r = -0.63), which indicated that the higher range of notes used for the pitch tasks was easier for participants than the lower range. Measures of pitch discrimination in different frequency ranges further informed changes made to one participant's map, resulting in improved pitch discrimination and speech perception scores. The outcomes of this study demonstrate that music perception tests can provide important additional measures for tuning cochlear implant parameters and assessing the impact of changes to device type and processing strategy.     

A cochlear implant user with exceptional musical hearing ability

Abstract

Although the perception of music is generally poor in cochlear implant users, there are a few excellent performers. Objective: The aim of this study was the assessment of different aspects of music perception in one exceptional cochlear implant user. Design: The assessments included pitch direction discrimination, melody and timbre recognition, relative and absolute pitch judgment, and consonance rating of musical notes presented through the sound processor(s). Study sample: An adult cochlear implant user with musical background who lost her hearing postlingually, and five normally-hearing listeners with musical training participated in the study. Results: The CI user discriminated pitch direction for sounds differing by one semitone and recognized melody with nearly 100% accuracy. Her results in timbre recognition were better than average published data for cochlear implant users. Her consonance rating, and relative and absolute pitch perception were comparable to normally-hearing listeners with musical training. Conclusion: The results in this study showed that excellent performance is possible on musical perception tasks including pitch perception using present day cochlear implant technologies. Factors that may explain this user's exceptional performance are short duration of deafness, pre- and post-deafness musical training, and perfect pitch abilities before the onset of deafness.