Abstract
The perception of speech in noise is challenging for children with cochlear implants (CIs). Singing and musical instrument playing have been associated with improved auditory skills in normal-hearing (NH) children. Therefore, we assessed how children with CIs who sing informally develop in the perception of speech in noise compared to those who do not. We also sought evidence of links of speech perception in noise with MMN and P3a brain responses to musical sounds and studied effects of age and changes over a 14–17 month time period in the speech-in-noise performance of children with CIs. Compared to the NH group, the entire CI group was less tolerant of noise in speech perception, but both groups improved similarly. The CI singing group showed better speech-in-noise perception than the CI non-singing group. The perception of speech in noise in children with CIs was associated with the amplitude of MMN to a change of sound from piano to cymbal, and in the CI singing group only, with earlier P3a for changes in timbre. While our results cannot address causality, they suggest that singing and musical instrument playing may have a potential to enhance the perception of speech in noise in children with CIs.
Highlights
THE PERCEPTION OF SPEECH IN NOISE IS challenging for children with cochlear implants (CIs)
This study examined the connections of the perception of speech in noise to music processing, the latter assessed with mismatch negativity (MMN) and with P3a brain responses to changes in the intensity, pitch, and timbral quality of musical instrument tones
The present findings show that early-implanted children with unilateral CIs, aged 4 to 13 years, and consistently exposed to singing, show development of speech-in-noise perception over time, and with age, at rates similar to NH peers, even though they do not achieve the same performance
Summary
THE PERCEPTION OF SPEECH IN NOISE IS challenging for children with cochlear implants (CIs). With CIs, spectral detail is largely lost (Moore, 2003), leading to poorer speech-in-noise performance than in normalhearing (NH) listeners (adults: Friesen, Shannon, Baskent, & Wang, 2001; Fu & Nogaki, 2005 children: Asp et al, 2012; Caldwell & Nittrouer, 2013; Geers, Davidson, Uchanski, & Nicholas, 2013; Mishra, Boddypally, & Rayapati, 2015) This underlines the need to improve this perceptual skill in children with CIs. Musical activities might be a way to achieve this goal (Patel, 2014; Shahin, 2011).
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