Perception of periodicity pitch by hearing-impaired listeners

The perception of periodicity pitch was examined in normal and hearing-impaired listeners. Hearing-impaired listeners exhibited varying degrees of damage to the basal (steep and gradual high frequency hearing losses) and apical (low-frequency hearing losses) portions of the cochlea. The four groups of listeners matched the pitch of the sinusoids to the pitch of air conduction pulse trains with pulse repetition frequencies of 150 and 250 located at center frequencies of 2000 and 4000 Hz. Normal-hearing listeners had no difficulty in perceiving the periodicity pitch. Hearing-loss subjects presented complex response patterns that seemed related to damage to high-frequency (basal) portions of the cochlea, but in general, did not make pitch matches corresponding to the wave-form periodicity. The data support experiments suggesting that the basal portion of the cochlea is responsible for the detection of periodicity pitch. It is also suggested that place information may influence pitch recognition for hearing-imparied listeners.