Dataset Information

Interactive Evaluation of a Music Preprocessing Scheme for Cochlear Implants Based on Spectral Complexity Reduction.

ABSTRACT: Music is difficult to access for the majority of CI users as the reduced dynamic range and poor spectral resolution in cochlear implants (CI), amongst others constraints, severely impair their auditory perception. The reduction of spectral complexity is therefore a promising means to facilitate music enjoyment for CI listeners. We evaluate a spectral complexity reduction method for music signals based on principal component analysis that enforces spectral sparsity, emphasizes the melody contour and attenuates interfering accompanying voices. To cover a wide range of spectral complexity reduction levels a new experimental design for listening experiments was introduced. It allows CI users to select the preferred level of spectral complexity reduction interactively and in real-time. Ten adult CI recipients with post-lingual bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss and CI experience of at least 6 months were enrolled in the study. In eight consecutive sessions over a period of 4 weeks they were asked to choose their preferred version out of 10 different complexity settings for a total number of 16 recordings of classical western chamber music. As the experiments were performed in consecutive sessions we also studied a potential long term effect. Therefore, we investigated the hypothesis that repeated engagement with music signals of reduced spectral complexity leads to a habituation effect which allows CI users to deal with music signals of increasing complexity. Questionnaires and tests about music listening habits and musical abilities complemented these experiments. The participants significantly preferred signals with high spectral complexity reduction levels over the unprocessed versions. While the results of earlier studies comprising only two preselected complexity levels were generally confirmed, this study revealed a tendency toward a selection of even higher spectral complexity reduction levels. Therefore, spectral complexity reduction for music signals is a useful strategy to enhance music enjoyment for CI users. Although there is evidence for a habituation effect in some subjects, such an effect has not been significant in general.

SUBMITTER: Gauer J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6872501 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Interactive Evaluation of a Music Preprocessing Scheme for Cochlear Implants Based on Spectral Complexity Reduction.

Gauer Johannes J Nagathil Anil A Martin Rainer R Thomas Jan Peter JP Völter Christiane C

Frontiers in neuroscience 20191115

Music is difficult to access for the majority of CI users as the reduced dynamic range and poor spectral resolution in cochlear implants (CI), amongst others constraints, severely impair their auditory perception. The reduction of spectral complexity is therefore a promising means to facilitate music enjoyment for CI listeners. We evaluate a spectral complexity reduction method for music signals based on principal component analysis that enforces spectral sparsity, emphasizes the melody contour ...[more]

PMID: 31803001

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Project description:A modified version of the child's Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Amusia (cMBEA) was used to assess music perception in children using bilateral cochlear implants. Our overall aim was to promote better performance by children with CIs on the cMBEA by modifying the complement of instruments used in the test and adding pieces transposed in frequency. The 10 test trials played by piano were removed and two high and two low frequency trials added to each of five subtests (20 additional). The modified cMBEA was completed by 14 children using bilateral cochlear implants and 23 peers with normal hearing. Results were compared with performance on the original version of the cMBEA previously reported in groups of similar aged children: 2 groups with normal hearing (n = 23: Hopyan et al., 2012; n = 16: Polonenko et al., 2017), 1 group using bilateral cochlear implants (CIs) (n = 26: Polonenko et al., 2017), 1 group using bimodal (hearing aid and CI) devices (n = 8: Polonenko et al., 2017), and 1 group using unilateral CI (n = 23: Hopyan et al., 2012). Children with normal hearing had high scores on the modified version of the cMBEA and there were no significant score differences from children with normal hearing who completed the original cMBEA. Children with CIs showed no significant improvement in scores on the modified cMBEA compared to peers with CIs who completed the original version of the test. The group with bilateral CIs who completed the modified cMBEA showed a trend toward better abilities to remember music compared to children listening through a unilateral CI but effects were smaller than in previous cohorts of children with bilateral CIs and bimodal devices who completed the original cMBEA. Results confirmed that musical perception changes with the type of instrument and is better for music transposed to higher rather than lower frequencies for children with normal hearing but not for children using bilateral CIs. Overall, the modified version of the cMBEA revealed that modifications to music do not overcome the limitations of the CI to improve music perception for children.

Project description:Children using unilateral cochlear implants abnormally rely on tempo rather than mode cues to distinguish whether a musical piece is happy or sad. This led us to question how this judgment is affected by the type of experience in early auditory development. We hypothesized that judgments of the emotional content of music would vary by the type and duration of access to sound in early life due to deafness, altered perception of musical cues through new ways of using auditory prostheses bilaterally, and formal music training during childhood. Seventy-five participants completed the Montreal Emotion Identification Test. Thirty-three had normal hearing (aged 6.6 to 40.0 years) and 42 children had hearing loss and used bilateral auditory prostheses (31 bilaterally implanted and 11 unilaterally implanted with contralateral hearing aid use). Reaction time and accuracy were measured. Accurate judgment of emotion in music was achieved across ages and musical experience. Musical training accentuated the reliance on mode cues which developed with age in the normal hearing group. Degrading pitch cues through cochlear implant-mediated hearing induced greater reliance on tempo cues, but mode cues grew in salience when at least partial acoustic information was available through some residual hearing in the contralateral ear. Finally, when pitch cues were experimentally distorted to represent cochlear implant hearing, individuals with normal hearing (including those with musical training) switched to an abnormal dependence on tempo cues. The data indicate that, in a western culture, access to acoustic hearing in early life promotes a preference for mode rather than tempo cues which is enhanced by musical training. The challenge to these preferred strategies during cochlear implant hearing (simulated and real), regardless of musical training, suggests that access to pitch cues for children with hearing loss must be improved by preservation of residual hearing and improvements in cochlear implant technology.

Project description:A key ingredient to academic success is being able to read. Deaf individuals have historically failed to develop literacy skills comparable with those of their normal-hearing (NH) peers, but early identification and cochlear implants (CIs) have improved prospects such that these children can learn to read at the levels of their peers. The goal of this study was to examine early, or emergent, literacy in these children.Twenty-seven deaf children with CIs, who had just completed kindergarten were tested on emergent literacy, and on cognitive and linguistic skills that support emergent literacy, specifically ones involving phonological awareness, executive functioning, and oral language. Seventeen kindergartners with NH and eight with hearing loss, but who used hearing aids served as controls. Outcomes were compared for these three groups of children, regression analyses were performed to see whether predictor variables for emergent literacy differed for children with NH and those with CIs, and factors related to the early treatment of hearing loss and prosthesis configuration were examined for children with CIs.The performance of children with CIs was roughly 1 SD or more below the mean performance of children with NH on all tasks, except for syllable counting, reading fluency, and rapid serial naming. Oral language skills explained more variance in emergent literacy for children with CIs than for children with NH. Age of first implant explained moderate amounts of variance for several measures. Having one or two CIs had no effect, but children who had some amount of bimodal experience outperformed children who had none on several measures.Even deaf children who have benefitted from early identification, intervention, and implantation are still at risk for problems with emergent literacy that could affect their academic success. This finding means that intensive language support needs to continue through at least the early elementary grades. Also, a period of bimodal stimulation during the preschool years can help boost emergent literacy skills to some extent.

Dataset Information

Interactive Evaluation of a Music Preprocessing Scheme for Cochlear Implants Based on Spectral Complexity Reduction.

Publications

Interactive Evaluation of a Music Preprocessing Scheme for Cochlear Implants Based on Spectral Complexity Reduction.

Similar Datasets

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