Abstract
ObjectiveThe goal of this study was to investigate the performance correlations between music perception and speech intelligibility in noise by Italian-speaking cochlear implant (CI) users.Materials and methodsTwenty postlingually deafened adults with unilateral CIs (mean age 65 years, range 46–92 years) were tested with a music quality questionnaire using three passages of music from Classical Music, Jazz, and Soul. Speech recognition in noise was assessed using two newly developed adaptive tests in Italian: The Sentence Test with Adaptive Randomized Roving levels (STARR) and Matrix tests.ResultsMedian quality ratings for Classical, Jazz and Soul music were 63%, 58% and 58%, respectively. Median SRTs for the STARR and Matrix tests were 14.3 dB and 7.6 dB, respectively. STARR performance was significantly correlated with Classical music ratings (rs = − 0.49, p = 0.029), whereas Matrix performance was significantly correlated with both Classical (rs = − 0.48, p = 0.031) and Jazz music ratings (rs = − 0.56, p = 0.011).ConclusionSpeech with competitive noise and music are naturally present in everyday listening environments. Recent speech perception tests based on an adaptive paradigm and sentence materials in relation with music quality measures might be representative of everyday performance in CI users. The present data contribute to cross-language studies and suggest that improving music perception in CI users may yield everyday benefit in speech perception in noise and may hence enhance the quality of listening for CI users.
Highlights
The primary goal of cochlear implant (CI) technology has been to restore functional hearing and speech perception in people with bilateral severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss
Some evidence comes from studies that compare normal hearing (NH) musicians and non-musicians’ performance. These studies reveal significant musician advantages for higher level auditory functions, such as perception of signal-in-noise and spectrally degraded stimuli simulating CI signal processing [14,15,16,17]. Such findings are thought to be promising for studies in CI users, in terms of similarities in performance for music perception and speech understanding in noise
Eight participants were implanted with Advanced Bionics (Valencia, USA) devices whilst twelve participants were implanted with Med-El (Innsbruck, Austria) devices
Summary
The primary goal of cochlear implant (CI) technology has been to restore functional hearing and speech perception in people with bilateral severe-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss. The principal focus has been to improve CIs’ technical constraints in dynamic range and in the resolution of spectro-temporal content of acoustic signals These are known as key factors resulting in significant performance deterioration for complex but typical everyday listening activities [7]. These studies reveal significant musician advantages for higher level auditory functions, such as perception of signal-in-noise and spectrally degraded stimuli simulating CI signal processing [14,15,16,17] Such findings are thought to be promising for studies in CI users, in terms of similarities in performance for music perception and speech understanding in noise. The Matrix test aims to yield a high reliability across several languages, including Italian, for speech perception assessment, where the use of adaptive noise is available [24, 26]
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