Modeling music perception in impaired listeners

Abstract

We employ computational models of loudness and pitch perception to better understand the impact of sensorineural hearing loss on music perception, with the aim of guiding technology development for hearing-impaired listeners. Traditionally, hearing aid development has been geared towards improving speech intelligibility and has largely failed to provide adequate restoration of music to those with hearing loss. One difficulty with trying to improve music perception in impaired listeners is the absence of a good quantitative measure of music reception, analogous to speech reception measures like word-recognition rate. Psychoacoustic models for loudness and pitch allow us to guage quantitative parameters relevant to music perception and make predictions about the type of deficits listeners face. We examine the impact of hearing loss to predicted measures of loudness, specific loudness, pitch, and consonance and make suggestions on possible methods for restoration.