Musical emotion perception in bimodal patients: Relationship between bimodal benefit and neural representation of temporal fine structure using Rhodes piano stimuli

Abstract

Combining electric and acoustic hearing across ears allows significant “bimodal hearing” benefit for speech recognition, sound quality, and music perception. The degree of bimodal benefit for speech recognition and musical emotion perception is significantly correlated with neural representation of F0 envelope using the frequency following response (FFR) for a 170-ms /da/ stimulus (D’Onofrio et al., in prep). The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between bimodal benefit for musical emotion perception and neural representation of F0 using Rhodes piano stimuli at the following fundamental frequencies: 98 Hz (G2), 262 Hz (C4), and 440 Hz (A4). Our hypotheses are (1) the correlation between bimodal benefit and neural representation of F0 and temporal fine structure will be strengthened via use of a “music” stimulus, compared to the /da/ “speech” stimulus, and (2) bimodal benefit for speech recognition will be better explained via FFR for speech stimuli. Stimuli were presented at 90 dB SPL to the non-implanted ear of bimodal listeners using magnetically shielded insert earphones. Implications regarding the clinical utility of FFR will be discussed, with particular attention given to its use as an objective measure of expected bimodal benefit for speech recognition and musical emotion perception.