Musical pitch discrimination by cochlear implant users.
OBJECTIVE
The main goal of this study was to investigate the effects of acoustic characteristics, including timbre and fundamental frequency (F0), on the musical pitch discrimination of cochlear implant users.


METHODS
Eight postlingually deafened cochlear implant users were recruited, along with 8 control subjects with normal hearing. Pitch discrimination tests were carried out using test stimuli from 4 musical instruments plus synthetic complex stimuli. Three reference tones with different F0s were used.


RESULTS
The mean difference limens were 1.8 to 10.7 semitones in the just-noticeable difference task and 2.1 to 13.6 semitones in the pitch-direction discrimination task for different timbre and F0 combinations. Three-way analysis of variance showed that the acoustic characteristics of the musical stimuli, such as timbre and F0, significantly influenced pitch discrimination performance.


CONCLUSIONS
Acoustic characteristics determine the complexity of the electrical stimulation pattern, which directly affects performance in pitch discrimination. A place pattern with a clear and regular low-order harmonic structure is most important for good pitch discrimination. A clear F0-related temporal pattern is also useful when the F0 is low. Pitch perception performance will worsen when there is interference in the high-frequency channels.
Shanghai Acoustics Laboratory, Institute of Acoustics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai, 200032, China.
Lichuan
L
Ping
Meng
M
Yuan
Haihong
H
Feng
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D004056:Differential Threshold; D005260:Female; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009146:Music; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D010897:Pitch Discrimination; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D055815:Young Adult