Music and the Cochlear Implant

Hearing Health Magazine recently released a variety of articles on Music and the Cochlear Implant. 

In the first article, Ward Drennan, PH.D. writes, "The primary weakness of CIs is their inability to deliver pitch information. There has been a long-standing controversy regarding what acoustic information normally hearing people use to allow them to perceive pitch." 

He continues later in the article, "The CI encodes frequencies according to place. Unfortunately, however, most of the fine timing information that could contribute to pitch is lost. The implant divides incoming acoustic information into 12, 16 or 22 channels, whereas normal hearing gleans information from 30 to 40 channels. Even in the best scenario, place information is already degraded relative to normal hearing. The degenerated condition of the auditory nerves of implant recipients further limits the end result to eight or nine functional channels. Additionally, CI-users lack information that hair cells normally “gather.” Groups of hair cells and their associated nerves, working in tandem, have the ability to capture the detailed pitch timing of each wax and wane of the acoustic wave up to 3,000 to 4,000 hertz. This ability is almost completely lost in the implant-user, who rarely gets such information greater than 300 hertz. Thus, the refined pitch, chords and melodies in music that normally hearing people enjoy often become a garbled, blurred mess when heard via a CI. For the CI-user then, the ability to perceive both place and timing information about pitch is marginalized.  Despite these unfortunate limitations, rhythm perception, an essential element of music, is nearly normal in CI-users. "

He goes on to say, "The brain is the CI-user’s greatest asset. With training and effort, the CI-user can utilize the garbled mess they hear, perhaps finding cues in the implant stimuli, and make the best use of music based on memory. Also, in the vein of Charles Ives, in which any sound might be considered music, the CI-user can learn to find aesthetic value in the “new” sound. Perceiving art, and art in sound, is primarily a state of mind." 

Finally he discusses Cochlear Implant company strategies to improve music listening including those of Advanced Bionics and Cochlear.

Great articles!!!

Comments

[Jennifer Newlin Albers]

I loved this. Thanks for sharing...as always!