Timbral recognition and appraisal by adult cochlear implant users and normal-hearing adults

The purpose of this study was to examine the appraisal and recognition of timbre (four different musical instruments) by recipients of Clarion cochlear implants (CIS strategy, 75- or 150-microsec pulse widths) and to compare their performance with that of normal-hearing listeners. Twenty-eight Clarion cochlear implant users and 41 normal-hearing listeners were asked to give a subjective assessment of the pleasantness of each instrument using a visual analog scale with anchors of "like very much" to "dislike very much," and to match each sound with a picture of the instrument they believed had produced it. No significant differences were found between the two different pulse widths for either appreciation or recognition; thus, data from the two pulse widths following 12 months of Clarion implant use were collapsed for further analyses. Significant differences in appraisal were found between normal-hearing listeners and implant recipients for two of the four instruments sampled. Normal-hearing adults were able to recognize all of the instruments with significantly greater accuracy than implant recipients. Performance on timbre perception tasks was correlated with speech perception and cognitive tasks.