A bilateral 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 normal hearing listeners with musical training. Conclusion:

The results in this study are an “existence proof” 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.