Music Abilities and Speech Perception in Indian Pediatric Cochlear Implant Users: A Comparative Study

The present study aimed to understand the music perception and speech perception skills of pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients and the effect of age on the music perception skills of cochlear implant users.

The aided word recognition score (WRS) was calculated using the Picture Speech Identification (PSI) test for Children in Hindi. The short version of the Montreal Battery of Evaluation of Musical Abilities in Childhood (MBEMA) was administered to assess music perception abilities in children.

Musical melodies were computer-generated with a duration of 3-4 s. Each trial consisted of a target and a comparison melody separated by a 1.5 ms silent interval. The listener's task was to decide whether the target melody and comparison melody were the same or different at the end of each presentation. All test stimuli were presented on a laptop using free-field speakers in a sound-treated room.

The normal-hearing subjects performed significantly better than the CI recipients on all three subtests of music perception (p <.001). Kendall's tau-b correlation suggests a strong positive correlation between melody, rhythm perception, and memory with word recognition. Age was not found to be a significant predictor of music perception.

Decoding music into its essential rhythm, melody, and timbre elements is a valuable approach for understanding cochlear implant-mediated music perception. Professionals can understand the fundamental aspects of musical perception and identify the areas in which implant users experience great difficulty.