Pitch Direction Discrimination Research Articles

Children using a unilateral cochlear implant and contralateral hearing aid: bimodal hearing outcomes when one ear is outside the UK (NICE 2009) audiological criteria for cochlear implantation – a single site case–control study

IntroductionIn the new revised National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE, TA566, 2019) guidelines for cochlear implantation (CI) have clearly stipulated that the hearing loss must be bilateral. Prior...

'Real-life' benefit of hearing preservation cochlear implantation in the paediatric population: a single-site case–control study

IntroductionCochlear implantation with hearing preservation (HPCI) has allowed a cochlear implant (CI) electrode to be implanted while trying to preserve residual acoustic low-frequency hearing. The concept arises from the importance...

Perception and Production of Statement-Question Intonation in Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Developmental Investigation

Prosody or “melody in speech” in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often perceived as atypical. This study examined perception and production of statements and questions in 84 children, adolescents and adults with and without ASD, as well as participants’ pitch direction discrimination thresholds. The results suggested that the abilities to discriminate (in both speech and music conditions), identify, and imitate statement-question intonation were intact in individuals with ASD across age cohorts. Sensitivity to pitch direction predicted performance on intonation processing in both groups, who also exhibited similar developmental changes. These findings provide evidence for shared mechanisms in pitch processing between speech and music, as well as associations between low- and high-level pitch processing and between perception and production of pitch.

Music Perception and Speech-in-Noise Skills of Typical Hearing and Cochlear Implant Listeners.

Purpose Adult cochlear implant (CI) users rate music as one of the most important auditory stimuli, second to speech perception. However, few studies simultaneously examine music perception and speech-in-noise perception in adult CI recipients. This study explores the effect of auditory status on music perception and speech-in-noise perception recognition in noise as well as the relationship among music engagement, music perception, and speech-in-noise perception. Method Participants include 10 adults with typical hearing (TH) and 10 adults with long-term CI use. All participants completed the Music-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire, which assesses subjective music experiences and their importance; the Pitch Direction Discrimination, Familiar Melody Recognition, and Timbre Recognition subtests of the Clinical Assessment of Music Perception for Cochlear Implants; the Unfamiliar Melody Recognition subtest of the Profile of Music Perception Skills; and the Bamford-Kowal-Bench Speech-in-Noise Test. Results The TH group significantly outperformed the CI group for speech-in-noise perception and on all four music perception tasks. The CI group exhibited not only significantly poorer mean scores but also greater variability in performance compared to the TH group. Only Familiar Melody Recognition and Unfamiliar Melody Recognition subtests significantly correlated with speech-in-noise scores. Conclusions Patients and professionals should not assume speech perception and music perception in adult CI users derive from the same auditory or cognitive foundations. The lack of significant relationships among music engagement, music perception, and speech-in-noise perception scores in adult CI users suggests this population enjoys music despite poor and variable performance in discrete music tasks.

A Neurophysiological Study of Musical Pitch Identification in Mandarin-Speaking Cochlear Implant Users.

Music perception in cochlear implant (CI) users is far from satisfactory, not only because of the technological limitations of current CI devices but also due to the neurophysiological alterations that generally accompany deafness. Early behavioral studies revealed that similar mechanisms underlie musical and lexical pitch perception in CI-based electric hearing. Although neurophysiological studies of the musical pitch perception of English-speaking CI users are actively ongoing, little such research has been conducted with Mandarin-speaking CI users; as Mandarin is a tonal language, these individuals require pitch information to understand speech. The aim of this work was to study the neurophysiological mechanisms accounting for the musical pitch identification abilities of Mandarin-speaking CI users and normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Behavioral and mismatch negativity (MMN) data were analyzed to examine musical pitch processing performance. Moreover, neurophysiological results from CI users with good and bad pitch discrimination performance (according to the just-noticeable differences (JND) and pitch-direction discrimination (PDD) tasks) were compared to identify cortical responses associated with musical pitch perception differences. The MMN experiment was conducted using a passive oddball paradigm, with musical tone C4 (262 Hz) presented as the standard and tones D4 (294 Hz), E4 (330 Hz), G#4 (415 Hz), and C5 (523 Hz) presented as deviants. CI users demonstrated worse musical pitch discrimination ability than did NH listeners, as reflected by larger JND and PDD thresholds for pitch identification, and significantly increased latencies and reduced amplitudes in MMN responses. Good CI performers had better MMN results than did bad performers. Consistent with findings for English-speaking CI users, the results of this work suggest that MMN is a viable marker of cortical pitch perception in Mandarin-speaking CI users.

Effects of Low Frequency Residual Hearing on Music Perception and Psychoacoustic Abilities in Pediatric Cochlear Implant Recipients.

Studies have demonstrated the benefits of low frequency residual hearing in music perception and for psychoacoustic abilities of adult cochlear implant (CI) users, but less is known about these effects in the pediatric group. Understanding the contribution of combined electric and acoustic stimulation in this group can help to gain a better perspective on decisions regarding bilateral implantation. We evaluated the performance of six unilaterally implanted children between 9 and 13 years of age with contralateral residual hearing using the Clinical Assessment of Music Perception (CAMP), spectral ripple discrimination (SRD), and temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF) tests and compared findings with previous research. Our study sample performed similarly to normal hearing subjects in pitch direction discrimination (0.81 semitones) and performed well above typical CI users in melody recognition (43.37%). The performance difference was less in timbre recognition (48.61%), SRD (1.47 ripple/octave), and TMTF for four modulation frequencies. These findings suggest that the combination of low frequency acoustic hearing with the broader frequency range of electric hearing can help to increase clinical CI benefit in pediatric users and decisions regarding second-side implantation should consider these factors.

Pitch direction ability predicts melodic perception in autism

ABSTRACTIndividuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) often present atypical auditory perception. Previous work has reported both enhanced low-level pitch discrimination and superior abilities to detect local pitch structure on higher-level melodic tasks in ASD. However, it is unclear how low and high levels of auditory perception are related in ASD or typical development (TD), or how this relationship might change across development and stimulus presentation rates. To these aims, in the present study, children with ASD and TD were tested on a low-level pitch direction discrimination task and a high-level melodic global-local task. Groups performed similarly on both of these auditory tasks. Moreover, individual differences in low-level pitch direction ability predicted performance on the higher-level global-local task, with a stronger relationship in ASD. Age did not affect the relationship between low-level and high-level pitch performance in either ASD or TD. However, there was a more positive effect of age on the high-level global-local task performance in TD than ASD. Finally, there was no effect of stimulus rate on the relationship between low-level and high-level pitch performance in either group. These findings provide a better understanding of how perception is associated across levels of processing in ASD versus TD. This work helps to better understand individual differences in auditory perception and to refine ASD phenotypes.

Singing without hearing: A comparative study of children and adults singing a familiar tune.

For many children, singing represents their first encounter with active music making, and for those who do not study an instrument, it may remain their most meaningful musical experience into adulthood. Toddlers and preschoolers are often encouraged to sing in the context of learning and play, and this experience is likely to strengthen young children's associations between the physical experience of singing and the perceptual feedback that singing creates-in short-the motor-auditory coupling between singing and hearing. The current study had two aims: to examine and compare the singing accuracy of three groups of participants when performing a familiar song from memory (children ages 5 to 8 years, children ages 9 to 12, and adults), and to examine the role of auditory feedback on different types of pitch errors across development by masking participants' ability to hear themselves.Singing Across DevelopmentA surge in recent research on singing has highlighted the relative lack of studies directly comparing children of different ages and adults on singing accuracy. Studies have shown that when compared with younger children, older children demonstrate significantly better pitch matching (Geringer, 1983), better pitch discrimination (Bentley, 1969), better pitch-direction discrimination (Fancourt, Dick, & Stewart, 2013), and better interval accuracy and key stability when singing a melody from memory (Hornbach & Taggart, 2005). However, direct comparisons are difficult, because the studies vary in types of measurement, agegroups, sampling methods, and types of singing tasks. Nonetheless, singing is often considered a building block of musicianship, and as such, there has been ongoing interdisciplinary interest in the course of development related to singing skills. Pitch accuracy is generally valued as a primary indicator of good singing, but experimental tasks vary from simple pitch matching to song singing from memory. Furthermore, the method of measuring pitch accuracy varies, with some developmental researchers performing acoustic analysis of sung waveforms (Cohen, 2015), others using a subjective third-party rater to evaluate singing (Demorest & Pfordresher, 2015; Flowers & Dunne-Sousa, 1990; Mang, 2006), and still others using both (Larrouy-Maestri, Leveque, Schon, Giovanni, & Morsomme, 2013). Singing studies that utilize consistent methodology and include both children and adults are rare, a point made by Demorest and Pfordresher (2015) in a comparative study which included children (kindergarten and grade six) and adults. Therefore, one aim of the current study was to examine the pitch accuracy of participants from three age-groups singing a familiar tune from memory, using consistent methodology and measures. Song singing was chosen because it is a familiar experience for young children who may or may not have any musical training, and as such, it presents fewer demand characteristics than tasks involving pitch matching or reproducing novel melodies.Self-Monitoring: Auditory and Kinesthetic FeedbackAn individual's ability to monitor the sound of his or her own voice while singing is an essential skill if one wishes to sing accurately. A theory proposed by Berkowska and Dalla Bella (2009) suggests that singing engages a vocal sensorimotor loop in which perceptual output is continuously compared against an internal representation of the intended pitch or melody. It is reasonable to ask how and when this skill develops in the course of normative development (Tsang, Friendly, & Trainor, 2011). Two hypotheses are as follows: Learned associations between the act of singing and how that singing sounds may become stronger with age and experience. Alternatively, age and experience may result in more automatization of pitch control and less self-monitoring of auditory feedback. Please note that these two alternatives are not mutually exclusive. When auditory feedback is masked, however, singers are forced to rely on proprio-kinesthetic feedback, or feedback from the body about movement and positioning. …

Development and validation of a novel tool for assessing pitch discrimination.

To develop and validate a tool for pitch discrimination that can be easily applied in otolaryngology clinics. Twenty healthy subjects performed three psychoacoustic tasks for assessing pitch discrimination thresholds, which were compared among the three tasks. In the pitch direction discrimination (PDirD) task, the subjects judged the pitch of two tones as higher or lower. In the pitch difference discrimination (PDiffD) task, the subjects judged the pitch of two tones as same or different. In the pitch pattern detection (PPD) task, the subjects judged the pattern of a tone complex. Using tone sets from level 0 to level 8, pitch thresholds were determined using the Parameter Estimation by Sequential Testing (PEST) staircase procedure. The tasks were performed without prior training. Every test was performed twice for each ear, and the better results were adopted as the threshold values. The PDirD thresholds varied considerably among the subjects and showed significantly larger deviations relative to those of the PPD thresholds. The number of below 0 thresholds, which are considered inadequate results, was significantly larger in the PDiffD task. In the PPD task, all thresholds except one were above level 6. The average total time taken to complete the PPD task was 7.7min, which was significantly lesser than that taken to complete the other two tasks. The results of our study suggest that the PPD task is a reliable and easily available tool for the assessment of pitch discrimination.

Music Perception and Enjoyment Show Little Association in CI Users

Music Perception and Enjoyment Show Little Association in CI Users

Clinical evaluation of music perception, appraisal and experience in cochlear implant users

Objectives: The objectives were to evaluate the relationships among music perception, appraisal, and experience in cochlear implant users in multiple clinical settings and to examine the viability of two assessments designed for clinical use. Design: Background questionnaires (IMBQ) were administered by audiologists in 14 clinics in the United States and Canada. The CAMP included tests of pitch-direction discrimination, and melody and timbre recognition. The IMBQ queried users on prior musical involvement, music listening habits pre and post implant, and music appraisals. Study sample: One-hundred forty-five users of Advanced Bionics and Cochlear Ltd cochlear implants. Results: Performance on pitch direction discrimination, melody recognition, and timbre recognition tests were consistent with previous studies with smaller cohorts, as well as with more extensive protocols conducted in other centers. Relationships between perceptual accuracy and music enjoyment were weak, suggesting that perception and appraisal are relatively independent for CI users. Conclusions: Perceptual abilities as measured by the CAMP had little to no relationship with music appraisals and little relationship with musical experience. The CAMP and IMBQ are feasible for routine clinical use, providing results consistent with previous thorough laboratory-based investigations.

Pitch-change detection and pitch-direction discrimination in children.

The present study investigated developmental changes in the ability to detect a change in pitch and to discriminate the direction of a pitch change using pitch glides. Adaptive-tracking procedures established separate thresholds for both of these abilities in musically untrained participants across nine age-groups (5-, 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-, 10-, 11-, 13-year-olds, and adults). The use of an odd-one-out paradigm avoided the need for participants to use semantic labels when determining the direction of a pitch change, and screening of the adaptive-staircase profile plots permitted the exclusion of inattentive performers. Although adults achieved equivalent thresholds for pitch-change detection and pitch-direction discrimination, there were age-related improvements for pitch-direction discrimination but not pitch-change detection in children between the ages of 6 and 11 years. The findings may indicate that the capacities to detect a change in pitch versus to discriminate the direction of a pitch change follow different developmental trajectories.

Does cochlear implantation restore music appreciation?

Does cochlear implantation restore music appreciation?

A cochlear implant user with exceptional musical hearing ability

Although the perception of music is generally poor in cochlear implant users, there are a few excellent performers. Objective: The aim of this study was the assessment of different aspects of music perception in one exceptional cochlear implant user. Design: The assessments included pitch direction discrimination, melody and timbre recognition, relative and absolute pitch judgment, and consonance rating of musical notes presented through the sound processor(s). Study sample: An adult cochlear implant user with musical background who lost her hearing postlingually, and five normally-hearing listeners with musical training participated in the study. Results: The CI user discriminated pitch direction for sounds differing by one semitone and recognized melody with nearly 100% accuracy. Her results in timbre recognition were better than average published data for cochlear implant users. Her consonance rating, and relative and absolute pitch perception were comparable to normally-hearing listeners with musical training. Conclusion: The results in this study showed that excellent performance is possible on musical perception tasks including pitch perception using present day cochlear implant technologies. Factors that may explain this user's exceptional performance are short duration of deafness, pre- and post-deafness musical training, and perfect pitch abilities before the onset of deafness.

Supplemental Material for Pitch-Change Detection and Pitch-Direction Discrimination in Children

Supplemental Material for Pitch-Change Detection and Pitch-Direction Discrimination in Children

Musical Pitch Discrimination by Cochlear Implant Users

The main goal of this study was to investigate the effects of acoustic characteristics, including timbre and fundamental frequency (F0), on the musical pitch discrimination of cochlear implant users. Eight postlingually deafened cochlear implant users were recruited, along with 8 control subjects with normal hearing. Pitch discrimination tests were carried out using test stimuli from 4 musical instruments plus synthetic complex stimuli. Three reference tones with different F0s were used. The mean difference limens were 1.8 to 10.7 semitones in the just-noticeable difference task and 2.1 to 13.6 semitones in the pitch-direction discrimination task for different timbre and F0 combinations. Three-way analysis of variance showed that the acoustic characteristics of the musical stimuli, such as timbre and F0, significantly influenced pitch discrimination performance. Acoustic characteristics determine the complexity of the electrical stimulation pattern, which directly affects performance in pitch discrimination. A place pattern with a clear and regular low-order harmonic structure is most important for good pitch discrimination. A clear F0-related temporal pattern is also useful when the F0 is low. Pitch perception performance will worsen when there is interference in the high-frequency channels.

Psychoacoustic Performance and Music and Speech Perception in Prelingually Deafened Children with Cochlear Implants

The number of pediatric cochlear implant (CI) recipients has increased substantially over the past 10 years, and it has become more important to understand the underlying mechanisms of the variable outcomes in this population. In this study, psychoacoustic measures of spectral-ripple and Schroeder-phase discrimination, the Clinical Assessment of Music Perception, and consonant-nucleus-consonant (CNC) word recognition in quiet and spondee reception threshold (SRT) in noise tests have been presented to 11 prelingually deafened CI users, aged 8–16 years with at least 5 years of CI experience. The children’s performance was compared to the previously reported results of postlingually deafened adult CI users. The average spectral-ripple threshold (n = 10) was 2.08 ripples/octave. The average Schroeder-phase discrimination was 67.3% for 50 Hz and 56.5% for 200 Hz (n = 9). The Clinical Assessment of Music Perception test showed that the average complex pitch direction discrimination was 2.98 semitones. The mean melody score was at a chance level, and the mean timbre score was 34.1% correct. The mean CNC word recognition score was 68.6%, and the mean SRT in steady noise was –8.5 dB SNR. The children’s spectral-ripple resolution, CNC word recognition, and SRT in noise performances were, within statistical bounds, the same as in a population of postlingually deafened adult CI users. However, Schroeder-phase discrimination and music perception were generally poorer than in the adults. It is possible then that this poorer performance seen in the children might be partly accounted for by the delayed maturation in their temporal processing ability, and because of this, the children’s performance may have been driven more by their spectral sensitivity.

The mechanism of speech processing in congenital amusia: evidence from Mandarin speakers.

Congenital amusia is a neuro-developmental disorder of pitch perception that causes severe problems with music processing but only subtle difficulties in speech processing. This study investigated speech processing in a group of Mandarin speakers with congenital amusia. Thirteen Mandarin amusics and thirteen matched controls participated in a set of tone and intonation perception tasks and two pitch threshold tasks. Compared with controls, amusics showed impaired performance on word discrimination in natural speech and their gliding tone analogs. They also performed worse than controls on discriminating gliding tone sequences derived from statements and questions, and showed elevated thresholds for pitch change detection and pitch direction discrimination. However, they performed as well as controls on word identification, and on statement-question identification and discrimination in natural speech. Overall, tasks that involved multiple acoustic cues to communicative meaning were not impacted by amusia. Only when the tasks relied mainly on pitch sensitivity did amusics show impaired performance compared to controls. These findings help explain why amusia only affects speech processing in subtle ways. Further studies on a larger sample of Mandarin amusics and on amusics of other language backgrounds are needed to consolidate these results.

The relationship between pitch and space in congenital amusia

Congenital amusia manifests as a lifelong difficulty in making sense of musical sound. The extent to which this disorder is accompanied by deficits in visuo-spatial processing is an important question, bearing on the issue of whether pitch processing draws on supramodal spatial representations. The present study assessed different aspects of visuo-spatial processing with a range of tasks (Shepard–Metzler Mental Rotation, Corsi Blocks Task, Visual Patterns Test) in 14 amusics and matched controls. The absence of a group difference on any of these tasks fails to support a previous claim that the disorder is strongly related to deficits in spatial processing. However, a subgroup of amusics, with significantly elevated thresholds on a pitch direction discrimination task relative to the rest of the group, were slower, but equally accurate, at Mental Rotation. This finding is discussed in relation to the nature of supramodal representations of contour and strategies for dynamic mental transformation.

Psychoacoustic Abilities Associated With Music Perception in Cochlear Implant Users

This study was designed to determine what acoustic elements are associated with musical perception ability in cochlear implant (CI) users and to understand how acoustic elements, which are important to good speech perception, contribute to music perception in CI users. It was hypothesized that the variability in the performance of music and speech perception may be related to differences in the sensitivity to specific acoustic features such as spectral changes or temporal modulations, or both. A battery of hearing tasks was administered to 42 CI listeners. The Clinical Assessment of Music Perception was used, which evaluates complex-tone pitch-direction discrimination, melody recognition, and timbre recognition. To investigate spectral and temporal processing, spectral-ripple discrimination and Schroeder-phase discrimination abilities were evaluated. Speech perception ability in quiet and noise was also evaluated. Relationships between Clinical Assessment of Music Perception subtest scores, spectral-ripple discrimination thresholds, Schroeder-phase discrimination scores, and speech recognition scores were assessed. Spectral-ripple discrimination was shown to correlate with all three aspects of music perception studied. Schroeder-phase discrimination was generally not predictive of music perception outcomes. Music perception ability was significantly correlated with speech perception ability. Nearly half of the variance in melody and timbre recognition was predicted jointly by spectral-ripple and pitch-direction discrimination thresholds. Similar results were observed on speech recognition as well. This study suggests that spectral-ripple discrimination is significantly associated with music perception in CI users. A previous report showed that spectral-ripple discrimination is significantly correlated with speech recognition in quiet and in noise. This study also showed that speech recognition and music perception are also related to one another. Spectral-ripple discrimination ability seems to reflect a wide range of hearing abilities in CI users. The results suggest that materially improving spectral resolution could provide significant benefits in music and speech perception outcomes in CI users.