Adults With Cochlear Implants: Residual Hearing, Musical Perception, and Temporal Skills.

Abstract

The main purpose of the study is to investigate whether the presence of residual hearing before cochlear implantation has an effect on temporal pattern recognition skills and musical perception in adults. The study included adults with cochlear implants who were between the ages of 20 and 45 years. Adults with cochlear implants were divided into two groups: absent (n = 20) and available (n = 20) groups according to residual hearing before implantation. Frequency Pattern and Duration Pattern tests were applied to evaluate temporal pattern recognition, and the "Music-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire" was applied to evaluate musical perceptions. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of cochlear-implanted hearing thresholds and speech recognition scores, musical perception, and musical activities, according to their residual hearing. On the other hand, the frequency and duration pattern recognition skills were statistically significantly better in adults with residual hearing. Also, statistically significant correlations were obtained in terms of temporal skills and musical perception subskills. The presence of residual hearing before cochlear implantation may affect temporal auditory processing skills. It is concluded that the integration of cochlear implants may affect temporal processing skills in adults as well as quality of life. It is recommended that experts be aware of this issue and pay attention to residual hearing.