The identification of musical instruments through nucleus cochlear implants

In this study, self-reported ability to recognize musical instruments was investigated by means of a questionnaire, which was sent to a group of adult Nucleus cochlear implant users and a group of normally hearing subjects. In addition, spectrograms and electrodograms were produced and analysed for samples of music played on 10 different musical instruments. Self-reported ability to recognize some instruments was poor in the group of implant users, particularly for the saxophone, tuba and clarinet. Electrodograms showed that these instruments could only be identified using distorted spectral information or reduced temporal information. Other instruments, such as the drum and piano, could be identified using temporal information. Limited spectral resolution makes the recognition of musical instruments difficult for Nucleus implant users.