Influence of pitch, timbre and timing cues on melodic contour identification with a competing masker (L).
Pitch, timbre, and/or timing cues may be used to stream and segregate competing musical melodies and instruments. In this study, melodic contour identification was measured in cochlear implant (CI) and normal-hearing (NH) listeners, with and without a competing masker; timing, pitch, and timbre cues were varied between the masker and target contour. NH performance was near-perfect across different conditions. CI performance was significantly poorer than that of NH listeners. While some CI subjects were able to use or combine timing, pitch and/or timbre cues, most were not, reflecting poor segregation due to poor spectral resolution.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat Hospital, Fudan University, 83 Fenyang Road, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China.
Meimei
M
Zhu
Bing
B
Chen
John J
JJ
Galvin
Qian-Jie
QJ
Fu
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult