Timbre Perception Research Articles

Contribution of Spectral and Temporal Cues in Timbre Recognition among Normal-Hearing and Hearing- Impaired People

Background and Aim: Timbre perception is a multidimensional feature of music perception and hearing loss may deteriorate timbre and instrument recognition. Deficits in timbre recognition may originate from poor temporal or spectral coding of musical notes subsequent to hearing loss However, it is not well understood which of these features are more dominant in instrument recognition with normal hearing and hearing loss. This study aimed to evaluate the relative importance of temporal and spectral cues instrument recognition in people with and without nearing loss. Methods: Two groups of adults with normal-hearing and hearing loss were tested with the timbre subtest of the Clinical Assessment of Music Perception (CAMP). Originally, a series of notes is played with eight musical instruments and participants were asked to identify the played instrument among them. In two other conditions, either the rise time or spectral cues of the same notes were masked using a special masking technique. Among eight instruments. Results: Instrument recognition scores were not significantly different between the original and spectral-manipulated conditions but were lower at the temporal-manipulated condition. The difference between the two groups was significant (p<0.05), where the normal-hearing group recognized the musical instruments significantly better than participants with hearing loss group (p<0.05). Conclusion: Temporal cues may have greater importance on timbre recognition regardless of hearing status. This suggests that the interventions and assistive devices which are designed to improve timbre recognition for people with hearing loss should prioritize improvement in temporal coding. Keywords: Timbre recognition; hearing loss; music; musical instrument; temporal; spectral

Timbral brightness perception investigated through multimodal interference

Brightness is among the most studied aspects of timbre perception. Psychoacoustically, sounds described as “bright” versus “dark” typically exhibit a high versus low frequency emphasis in the spectrum. However, relatively little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms that facilitate these metaphors we listen with. Do they originate in universal magnitude representations common to more than one sensory modality? Triangulating three different interaction paradigms, we investigated using speeded classification whether intramodal, crossmodal, and amodal interference occurs when timbral brightness, as modeled by the centroid of the spectral envelope, and pitch height/visual brightness/numerical value processing are semantically congruent and incongruent. In four online experiments varying in priming strategy, onset timing, and response deadline, 189 total participants were presented with a baseline stimulus (a pitch, gray square, or numeral) then asked to quickly identify a target stimulus that is higher/lower, brighter/darker, or greater/less than the baseline after being primed with a bright or dark synthetic harmonic tone. Results suggest that timbral brightness modulates the perception of pitch and possibly visual brightness, but not numerical value. Semantically incongruent pitch height-timbral brightness shifts produced significantly slower reaction time (RT) and higher error compared to congruent pairs. In the visual task, incongruent pairings of gray squares and tones elicited slower RTs than congruent pairings (in two experiments). No interference was observed in the number comparison task. These findings shed light on the embodied and multimodal nature of experiencing timbre.

A Narrative Analysis of J. G. Roederer’s The Physics and Psychophysics of Music

This paper conducts narrative analysis for the rhetorical critique of Roederer's <i>The Physics and Psychophysics of Music</i>, a prominent textbook of music science. It is possible to analyze implicit narratives even for texts in non-narrative genres. In science textbooks, implicit narratives can be analyzed in structural, educational, and research contexts. Roederer's satisfies structural coherence by composing a book in a way that deals with the perception of pitch, volume, timbre, and harmony according to the stages of sound generation, transmission, and acceptance in a structural context. In an educational context, a book is composed of content that students may be interested in for a scientific understanding of music to satisfy material coherence, and the validity of narrative fidelity is satisfied through the pursuit of reliable knowledge through experience data and improved observational equipment according to the method of constructing scientific knowledge. From the research context, we can confirmed that characterological coherence is secured by satisfying the truthfulness of narrative fidelity through the update of knowledge throughout the four editions, and by revealing that the knowledge of music science is being built through the activities of major researchers.

Neural correlates of musical timbre: an ALE meta-analysis of neuroimaging data.

Timbre is a central aspect of music that allows listeners to identify musical sounds and conveys musical emotion, but also allows for the recognition of actions and is an important structuring property of music. The former functions are known to be implemented in a ventral auditory stream in processing musical timbre. While the latter functions are commonly attributed to areas in a dorsal auditory processing stream in other musical domains, its involvement in musical timbre processing is so far unknown. To investigate if musical timbre processing involves both dorsal and ventral auditory pathways, we carried out an activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis of 18 experiments from 17 published neuroimaging studies on musical timbre perception. We identified consistent activations in Brodmann areas (BA) 41, 42, and 22 in the bilateral transverse temporal gyri, the posterior superior temporal gyri and planum temporale, in BA 40 of the bilateral inferior parietal lobe, in BA 13 in the bilateral posterior Insula, and in BA 13 and 22 in the right anterior insula and superior temporal gyrus. The vast majority of the identified regions are associated with the dorsal and ventral auditory processing streams. We therefore propose to frame the processing of musical timbre in a dual-stream model. Moreover, the regions activated in processing timbre show similarities to the brain regions involved in processing several other fundamental aspects of music, indicating possible shared neural bases of musical timbre and other musical domains.

Reduced Channel Interaction Improves Timbre Recognition Under Vocoder Simulation of Cochlear Implant Processing.

This study aimed to investigate the influence of the number of channels and channel interaction on timbre perception in cochlear implant (CI) processing. By utilizing vocoder simulations of CI processing, the effects of different numbers of channels and channel interaction were examined to assess their impact on timbre perception, an essential aspect of music and auditory performance. Fourteen CI recipients, with at least 1 year of CI device use, and two groups (N = 16 and N = 19) of normal hearing (NH) participants completed a timbre recognition (TR) task. NH participants were divided into two groups, with each group being tested on different aspects of the study. The first group underwent testing with varying numbers of channels (8, 12, 16, and 20) to determine an ideal number that closely reflected the TR performance of CI recipients. Subsequently, the second group of NH participants participated in the assessment of channel interaction, utilizing the identified ideal number of 20 channels, with three conditions: low interaction (54 dB/octave), medium interaction (24 dB/octave), and high interaction (12 dB/octave). Statistical analyses, including repeated-measures analysis of variance and pairwise comparisons, were conducted to examine the effects. The number of channels did not demonstrate a statistically significant effect on TR in NH participants ( p > 0.05). However, it was observed that the condition with 20 channels closely resembled the TR performance of CI recipients. In contrast, channel interaction exhibited a significant effect ( p < 0.001) on TR. Both the low interaction (54 dB/octave) and high interaction (12 dB/octave) conditions differed significantly from the actual CI recipients' performance. Timbre perception, a complex ability reliant on highly detailed spectral resolution, was not significantly influenced by the number of channels. However, channel interaction emerged as a significant factor affecting timbre perception. The differences observed under different channel interaction conditions suggest potential mechanisms, including reduced spectro-temporal resolution and degraded spectral cues. These findings highlight the importance of considering channel interaction and optimizing CI processing strategies to enhance music perception and overall auditory performance for CI recipients.

Musical training is not associated with spectral context effects in instrument sound categorization.

Musicians display a variety of auditory perceptual benefits relative to people with little or no musical training; these benefits are collectively referred to as the "musician advantage." Importantly, musicians consistently outperform nonmusicians for tasks relating to pitch, but there are mixed reports as to musicians outperforming nonmusicians for timbre-related tasks. Due to their experience manipulating the timbre of their instrument or voice in performance, we hypothesized that musicians would be more sensitive to acoustic context effects stemming from the spectral changes in timbre across a musical context passage (played by a string quintet then filtered) and a target instrument sound (French horn or tenor saxophone; Experiment 1). Additionally, we investigated the role of a musician's primary instrument of instruction by recruiting French horn and tenor saxophone players to also complete this task (Experiment 2). Consistent with the musician advantage literature, musicians exhibited superior pitch discrimination to nonmusicians. Contrary to our main hypothesis, there was no difference between musicians and nonmusicians in how spectral context effects shaped instrument sound categorization. Thus, musicians may only outperform nonmusicians for some auditory skills relevant to music (e.g., pitch perception) but not others (e.g., timbre perception via spectral differences).

The Music of Fausto Romitelli: Concerning the Question of “Musical Material”

The end of the 20th century demonstrates an expansion of horizons of the comprehension of musical sonorities, the conception of their transformation from music into “sound,” which radically changes the perception of timbre: this element becomes transformed from a peripheral component of sound to the primary element, thereby changing entirely the entire conception of musical material. Thus, the theory of music material developed by outstanding German philosopher Theodor Adorno in the middle of the 20th century has found its confirmation. The latter’s concept of the historicity of music material was upheld and further developed by Italian composer Luigi Nono, who fundamentally changed the sphere of perception of this phenomenon, which subsequently was testified by his German student Helmut Lachenmann. This required not only new combinations of sound, but a reevaluation of the attitude of working with them. Fausto Romitelli (1963–2004) pertains to the generation of composers that discovered new paths for work with sound. In his musical output sound becomes a complex multicomponent phenomenon presuming an interaction between acoustic instruments, electronic sounds and reverberation — the sound “aura” and the sound “halo,” both of which are also composed consciously (presenting “composed resonance”). Romitelli’s individuality demonstrates itself in the fact that he builds this component of his musical material, basing himself on sonar discoveries in the sphere of rock music, in particular, the Pink Floyd ensemble, which finds reflection in such of his works as EnTrance, Professor Bad Trip, etc. Romitelli characterized the “aura” of his sound as “dirty,” comprehending this as a specific resonance of the sound of the electric guitar in rock music. Romitelli’s “composed resonance” is not characteristic solely of him; “composed resonance” as an element of musical material may be discerned in the works of other composers, in particular, Kaija Saariaho in her Amers for solo cello and ensemble.

Exploring the relation between fundamental frequency and spectral envelope in the perception of musical instrument sounds

Pitch and timbre perception centrally depend on fundamental frequency (F0) and spectral envelopes (SE), respectively. However, timbre perception as a function of F0 is less explored in the literature. An analysis-synthesis approach was used to compare sounds with congruent and incongruent F0 and SE parameters via sound pleasantness, brightness, and plausibility ratings. Analyzing 1900 musical instruments and voice sounds, a two-dimensional synthesis space was derived. The space was sampled in its inner and outer regions, reflecting high and low similarity to existing acoustical instrument sounds. Sounds with congruent and incongruent F0-SE relations were synthesized, defining congruency as the co-occurrence of F0 and SE in the analyzed set of sounds. In Experiment 1, inner regions of the space were rated as more pleasant compared to outer regions. Further, sounds with incongruent F0-SE relation were rated as less pleasant only for F0 discrepancies above two octaves. Finally, the first dimension of the space strongly reflected differences in brightness when F0 was controlled for. In Experiment 2, a spectrally more fine-grained resynthesis approach revealed effects of congruency on pleasantness and plausibility for smaller F0 separations. These results provide evidence for a co-dependence of F0 and SE properties in the perception of harmonic sounds.

A Sound Similarity Algorithm Based on Human Intuition

In this work, we describe some characteristics of human timbre perception. We propose the concept of harmony function to quantify how harmonious two pitches are perceived to be and apply these psychoacoustics theories to build a comparison algorithm. To examine the algorithm, some audio samples are chosen to take the test and get a natural result as expected. As the title suggests, the calculation result of this algorithm is in line with human intuition.

Experienced Listeners’ Perception of Timbre Dissimilarity Within and Between Voice Categories

The terms "soprano" and "mezzo-soprano" are frequently used by vocal pedagogues to describe a main category of singing timbre categorization, while the terms "lyric" and "dramatic" are often used to describe sub-categories of "soprano" and "mezzo-soprano". A handful of studies have reported on the perceptual dissimilarity of main voice categories, but few, if any, have focused on within voice category perceptual distinctions such as dramatic and lyric vocal timbre. Using stimuli collected from cisgender female singers of varying voice categories and voice weights across the pitches C4, G4, and F5, this study sought (1) to visualize an experienced listener's perception of vocal timbre dissimilarity within and between voice categories using the statistical technique of multidimensional scaling (MDS), (2) to identify salient acoustic predictors of voice category and voice weight, and (3) to determine any dependencies on pitch for the perception of vocal timbre. For the pitches C4, G4, and F5, experienced listeners (N=18) rated the dissimilarity of pairs of sung vowels produced by classically trained singers classified as follows: six mezzo-sopranos (three lighter and three heavier) and six sopranos (three lighter and three heavier). The resulting dissimilarity data were analyzed using MDS. Backward linear regression was used to see if one or more of the following variables predicted MDS dimensions: spectral centroid from 0 to 5 kHz, spectral centroid from 0 to 2 kHz, spectral centroid from 2 to 5 kHz, frequency vibrato rate, and frequency vibrato extent. Listeners also completed a categorization task where they rated each individual stimulus on two dimensions: voice category and voice weight. Visual analysis of the MDS solutions appears to show that both voice category and voice weight emerged as dimensions at pitches C4 and G4. Discriminant analysis, on the other hand, statistically confirmed both these dimensions at G4, but only voice weight at C4. At pitch F5, only voice weight emerged as a dimension, both visually and statistically. Acoustic predictors of MDS dimensions were highly variable across pitches. At the pitch C4, no MDS dimension was predicted by the acoustic variables. At pitch G4, the dimension associated with voice weight was predicted by spectral centroid from 0 to 2 kHz. At pitch F5, the dimension associated with voice weight was predicted by spectral centroid from 2 to 5 kHz and frequency vibrato rate. In the categorization task, voice category and voice weight were highly correlated at the pitches C4, G4, and when all pitches were presented together, but weakly correlated at the pitch F5. While voice category and sub-category distinctions are commonly used by singing voice professionals to describe the overall timbre of voices, these distinctions may not be able to consistently predict the perceptual difference between any given pair of vocal stimuli, particularly across pitch. Nonetheless, these dimensions do emerge in some fashion when listeners are presented with paired vocal stimuli. On the other hand, when asked to rate stimuli according to the specific labels of mezzo-soprano/soprano and dramatic/lyric, experienced listeners have a very difficult time disentangling voice category from voice weight when presented with a single-note stimulus or even a 3-note stimulus consisting of the pitches C3, G4, and F5.

An improved vocoder algorithm based on music harmonics and time sampling

Music plays an essential role in the healthy life of humans. However, few sound processor algorithms effectively encode the fine structure cues of music, resulting in inferior music perception for cochlear implant (CI) users, especially in pitch and melody. In this study, an improved music vocoder algorithm is proposed based on the conjunction of harmonic and time sampling (HTS). The algorithm includes two branches: the first, the pitch (i.e., fundamental frequency, F0) and important harmonics of music signal are extracted. Second, on the existing CI channels, the music signal is split into multiple sub-bands and the relevant envelopes are respectively matched to the F0 and important lower harmonics, then modulated and aligned with appropriate intervals which are not less than the auditory nerve response absolute refractory period (ANR-ARP). The violin sounds were synthesized and experimented with the CI tone vocoder, and the HTS algorithm was compared and evaluated with the classical continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) algorithm. Twenty normal hearing (NH) subjects were recruited for audiometry experiments. The results showed that the pitch ranking scores of the HTS were obviously better than that of the CIS, and in quiet and noisy conditions the melody recognition rates of the HTS were 46.4% and 49% higher than that of the CIS, respectively. And further results showed that the HTS algorithm also increased the timbre perception of CI vocoder music. It is suggested that the HTS algorithm has the potential to enhance the music perception of CI users.

Perception of timbre in adult Cochlear implant users: Comparison of Iranian and Western musical instruments

Objectives Cochlear implants (CI) have dramatically improved speech perception for patients with sensorineural hearing impairment. However, listening to music is a great challenge for them. This study examined the perception and appraisal of Iranian musical instruments comparing with similar Western instruments. Methods Eleven adult CI users and 25 normal hearing (NH) individuals participated in this study. Musical stimuli of three commonly heard instrument pairs were prepared. Participants were asked to identify the instruments and rate their appraisal on a ten-point Likert scale (0 = dislike very much, 10 = like very much). Results The instrument recognition rate was 40.6% among the CI users, and the mean appraisal score was 5.2 ± 2.7. NH listeners had none significant higher scores on both tasks with a recognition rate of 50.0% and the mean appraisal score of 6.9 ± 1.5. Iranian instruments were more recognized in both groups. Regarding their appraisal, the mean score for both types was almost equal in the NH group, while CI users more appraised Iranian instruments. Conclusion In addition to better recognition of Iranian instruments, they were particularly better appraised in the CI group. Iranian instruments provide suitable musical pieces for CI recipients that can be considered in rehabilitation programs.

К ПРОБЛЕМЕ ВОСПРИЯТИЯ И ОПИСАНИЯ ТЕМБРАЛЬНЫХ ГОЛОСОВЫХ ХАРАКТЕРИСТИК В ДЕТСКОЙ ИГРОВОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ

The article reflects the results of a psycholinguistic study of the perception of prosodic timbre based on the material of spontaneous children's speech. The problem of describing of the timbre is not sufficiently developed: on the one hand, there is no single interpretation of the concept of «timbre», on the other hand, the question of relating the timbre to the components of intonation still remains unresolved. It is obvious that timbre is a means of conveying the emotive meanings of an utterance, and its perception is based on emotional and evaluative sensations. The article deals with the prosodic timbre, which, unlike the speaker's voice quality, is not a constitutive means. The study was conducted on the material of spontaneous speech of preschoolers in a game. An analysis of the peculiarities of the perception of timbre by «naive» native Russian speakers and phonetic experts showed that the palette of timbres provided to the auditors before the start of the experiment and including only «light» characteristics facilitates the classification of fragments but does not fully reflect the features of speech sounding. The article also compares the results obtained from phonetic experts on the characteristics of the prosodic timbre with the theory of vowel timbres by E.N. Vinarskaya.

Effect of Vibrotactile Stimulation on Auditory Timbre Perception for Normal-Hearing Listeners and Cochlear-Implant Users.

The study tests the hypothesis that vibrotactile stimulation can affect timbre perception. A multidimensional scaling experiment was conducted. Twenty listeners with normal hearing and nine cochlear implant users were asked to judge the dissimilarity of a set of synthetic sounds that varied in attack time and amplitude modulation depth. The listeners were simultaneously presented with vibrotactile stimuli, which varied also in attack time and amplitude modulation depth. The results showed that alterations to the temporal waveform of the tactile stimuli affected the listeners' dissimilarity judgments of the audio. A three-dimensional analysis revealed evidence of crossmodal processing where the audio and tactile equivalents combined accounted for their dissimilarity judgments. For the normal-hearing listeners, 86% of the first dimension was explained by audio impulsiveness and 14% by tactile impulsiveness; 75% of the second dimension was explained by the audio roughness or fast amplitude modulation, while its tactile counterpart explained 25%. Interestingly, the third dimension revealed a combination of 43% of audio impulsiveness and 57% of tactile amplitude modulation. For the CI listeners, the first dimension was mostly accounted for by the tactile roughness and the second by the audio impulsiveness. This experiment shows that the perception of timbre can be affected by tactile input and could lead to the developing of new audio-tactile devices for people with hearing impairment.

Poetics of hypertimbralism in music

My presentation is an attempt to introduce and clarify an original concept which I called Hypertimbralism, that refers to music based on Hypertimbre as the foundation for musical composition. It points to either orchestral, chamber or solo instruments music which relies on unusual timbre involving polyspectral energy. In contemporary music, two factors led to the arousal of Timbre-based aesthetics: sound mass (very dense textures) and extended instrumental techniques. Hypertimbralism embraces already written music and at the same time opens imagination for new insights in this matter. A poetics of hypertimbralism would provide a musicological background for composition based on an enhanced vocabulary of timbre and on a higher understanding of timbre perception.

Poetics of Hypertimbralism in Music

My presentation is an attempt to introduce and clarify an original concept which I called Hypertimbralism, that refers to music based on Hypertimbre as the foundation for musical composition. It points to either orchestral, chamber or solo instruments music which relies on unusual timbre involving polyspectral energy. In contemporary music, two factors led to the arousal of Timbre-based aesthetics: sound mass (very dense textures) and extended instrumental techniques. Hypertimbralism embraces already written music and at the same time opens imagination for new insights in this matter. A poetics of hypertimbralism would provide a musicological background for composition based on an enhanced vocabulary of timbre and on a higher understanding of timbre perception.

Residents’ Preferences to Multiple Sound Sources in Urban Park: Integrating Soundscape Measurements and Semantic Differences

Urban parks provide their residents with a space for activities and interactions, and soundscapes play an important role in influencing the residents’ sense of experience of the park environment, with the result that the preferences of residents regarding multiple sound sources can be used as the basis of improving the soundscape quality and optimizing the function of urban parks. Using Shanghai Century Park as the research area, this study focused on the residents’ preference to multiple sound sources based on registered residence differences, and comprehensively used the semantic differential method, importance-performance analysis model, and multinomial logit model to conduct quantitative research on urban park soundscapes and combined the measurement results of the soundscape with the residents’ perception and preference. The results showed that the artificial sounds in Century Park were noisy during the morning and evening peak, while the human sounds were noisy when residents gathered in the park. There was a close relationship between the favorability and subjective loudness of urban park soundscapes, and the residents’ perceptions of urban park soundscapes substantially differed in terms of loudness, tone, and sense of belonging, whereas the differences in the perception of timbre, coverage, and sound source distance were relatively small. Furthermore, it is necessary to enhance the role of natural sounds as well as control the main noise-producing sound sources so that various sounds in the park will not interfere with each other; the optimization of soundscapes should also focus on the residents’ different soundscape preferences due to their individual characteristics.

Singing-Voice Timbre Evaluations Based on Transfer Learning

The development of artificial intelligence technology has made it possible to realize automatic evaluation systems for singing, and relevant research has been able to achieve accurate evaluations with respect to pitch and rhythm, but research on singing-voice timbre evaluation has remained at the level of theoretical analysis. Timbre is closely related to expression performance, breath control, emotional rendering, and other aspects of singing skills, and it has a crucial impact on the evaluation of song interpretation. The purpose of this research is to investigate the automatic evaluation method of singing-voice timbre. At the present stage, timbre research generally has problems such as a paucity of datasets, a single evaluation index, easy overfitting or a model’s failure to converge. Compared with the singing voice, the research on musical instruments is more mature, with more available data and richer evaluation dimensions. We constructed a deep network based on the CRNN model to perform timbre evaluation, and the test results showed that cross-media learning of timbre evaluation is feasible, which also indicates that humans have a consistent timbre perception with respect to musical instruments and vocals.

Susceptibility to Postoperative Changes in Music Appreciation in Elderly Cochlear Implant Recipients.

With the rise in life expectancy and the consequent increase in the elderly population, the use of cochlear implants (CI) in elderly patients with hearing loss is also increasing. The aim of this study was to investigate whether music appreciation in elderly CI users differs from that of non-elderly users. Forty-nine adult CI recipients participated in the study, and the Korean version of the Music Background Questionnaire was utilized preoperatively and postoperatively to evaluate music appreciation. The changes between the preoperative and postoperative values were compared after categorizing the participants into a non-elderly group (<65 years; n = 31) and an elderly group (≥65 years; n = 18). When compared to the non-elderly group, the elderly individuals exhibited a significant decrease in music listening times, without a significant change in the genre of music listened to following CI surgery. Moreover, the elderly group demonstrated significant decreases in music appreciation scores in terms of music quality and music elements, perceiving music as less natural, less clear, and more complex. They also exhibited significant changes in scores with respect to perception of rhythm, melody, timbre, and lyrics. This susceptibility to postoperative changes in music appreciation among elderly CI users should be considered in surgical counseling and music training programs.

A Study of Music Training for Cochlear Implant Users: Mismatch Negativity and Music Listening Attitude and Satisfaction Questionnaire

Purpose: The music rehabilitation program (MRP) promotes auditory, language, cognitive, and motor development of the brain. The significance of MRP was studied through mismatch negativity (MMN) and Music Listening Attitude and Satisfaction Questionnaire for hearing loss (MASQ_H). Methods: Fifteen adult cochlear implant (CI) users (34.5 years; standard deviation, ± 11.6) participated. MMN was tested before and after MRP training at the stimulus intensity level of 70 and 100 dB hearing loss (HL). In addition, MASQ_H was utilized. Results: For the pre- and post-tests of MMN, the average amplitudes of the waveforms were -2.48 ± 1.95 µV and -6.11 ± 4.21 µV and the areas were 208.16 ± 211.59 µV·ms and 527.87 ± 360.42 µV·ms with the significant difference when the stimulus level was presented at 70 dB HL. For MASQ_H, 90.9% of the participants responded that they felt satisfied with listening to music using CI or hearing aid. When asked about the musical factors that were improved in the music listening, the ‘pitch perception’ and ‘timbre perception’ were responded showing increased satisfaction rates. Conclusion: This study confirmed that MRP improved language processing by facilitating auditory processing, cognitive ability, and neural plasticity of the central auditory system through the increased amplitude and area of MMN after MRP application. Furthermore, providing a systematic music training such as MRP could change the music listening attitudes and satisfaction of the CI users’. The active implementation of music rehabilitation is strongly suggested.