[The music quality feeling and music perception of adult cochlear implant recipients]

Objective:To assess the music quality feeling and music perception abilities of adults with cochlear implants and to probe the correlation between the two. Method:Forty adult cochlear implant recipients recruited from the Bejing Tongren Hosipital(27 males, 13 females, average ages at 36.13±13.33) and 40 normal-hearing subjects(21 males, 19females, average ages at 26.53±6.94) participated in this study. Musical Sounds In Cochlear Implant were used to assess the pitch, melody and timbre perception for both normal-hearing subjects and adult cochlear implant recipients. To assess the self-reported music quality feeling of normal-hearing subjects and adult cochlear implant recipients from three aspects of listening music quality(Naturalness, comfort, and clarity). Using some questions about musical background and listening habits of the Munich Music questionnaire(MUMU) to assess the musical experience scores of all subjects.Result:For cochlear implant recipients, the pitch discrimination thresholds at A4 and C4 and the correction rate of melody discrimination and instrument identification test were significantly different from those for normalhearing subjects(P<0.05). The average music quality feeling scores of the cochlear implant recipients and normal-hearing subjects were 4.75±2.76 and 8.33±1.47, respectively. The differences between the two groups were significant(P<0.05). Type of CI had no significant influence on the results of musical quality feeling(P>0.05). The scores of music quality feeling was significantly related with the pitch discrimination thresholds at A4 and C4(P<0.05), but had no significant correlation with the correlation rate of melody discrimination test and instrument identification test(P>0.05).Conclusion:For adult cochlear implant recipients, the music quality feeling and the music perception ability are weaker than normal-hearing subjects. The music quality feeling is related to the pitch perception, but had no relationship with the melody and timbre perception ability.