Training of Cochlear Implant Users to Improve Pitch Perception in the Presence of Competing Place Cues

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Perception of musical pitch in cochlear implant (CI) systems is relatively poor compared with normal hearing and can be adversely affected by changes in spectral timbre coded by stimulation place. In this study, we evaluated whether the perception of musical pitch could be improved through specific training designed to teach listeners to attend to fundamental frequency (F0) exclusively for judgment of pitch and to spectral envelope exclusively for discrimination of spectral timbre. DESIGN: A computer-based training program to improve musical pitch perception was developed that required listeners to match acoustic patterns of pitch and spectral timbre to visual patterns. Ten adult..