Hypothesis Performance in tone perception and production are correlated in prelingually-deafened pediatric cochlear implant (CI) users across individuals. Demographic variables, such as age at implantation, contribute to the performance variability. Background Poor representation of pitch information in CI devices hinders pitch perception and affects perception of lexical tones in cochlear implant users who speak tonal languages. Methods One hundred and ten Mandarin-speaking, prelingually-deafened CI subjects and 125 typically-developing, normal-hearing subjects were recruited from Beijing, China. Lexical tone perception was measured using a computerized tone contrast test. Tone production was judged by native Mandarin-speaking adult listeners and analyzed acoustically and with an artificial neural network. A general linear model analysis was performed to determine factors that accounted for performance variability. Results CI subjects scored ~67% correct on the lexical tone perception task. The degree of differentiation of tones produced by the CI group was significantly lower than the control group as revealed by acoustic analysis. Tone production performance assessed by the neural network was highly correlated with that evaluated by human listeners. There was a moderate correlation between the overall tone perception and production performance across CI subjects. Duration of implant use and age at implantation jointly explained ~29% of the variance in the tone perception performance. Age at implantation was the only significant predictor for tone production performance in the CI subjects. Conclusion Tone production performance in pediatric CI users is dependent on accurate perception. Early implantation predicts better outcome in lexical tone perception and production.

Objectives-Lexical tone recognition tends to be poor in cochlear implant users. The HiResolution (HiRes) sound-processing strategy is designed to better preserve temporal fine structure, or the detailed envelope information, of an acoustic signal. The newer HiRes 120 strategy builds on HiRes by increasing the amount of potential spectral information delivered to the implant user. The purpose of this study was to examine lexical tone recognition in native Mandarin Chinese-speaking children with cochlear implants using the HiRes and HiRes 120 sound-processing strategies. Tone recognition performance was tested with HiRes at baseline and then after up to 6 mo of HiRes 120 experience in the same subjects.Design-Twenty prelingually deafened, native Mandarin-speaking children, with ages ranging from 3.5 to 16.5 yr, participated. All children completed a computerized tone contrast test on three occasions: (1) using HiRes immediately before conversion to HiRes 120 (baseline), (2) 1 mo after conversion, and (3) 3 mo after conversion. Twelve of the 20 children also were tested 6 mo after conversion. In addition, the parents of 18 children completed a questionnaire at the 3-mo follow-up visit regarding the preference of sound-processing strategies and the children's experience related to various aspects of auditory perception and speech production using HiRes 120.Results-As a group, no statistically significant differences were seen between the tone recognition scores using HiRes and HiRes 120. Individual scores showed great variability. Tone recognition performance ranged from chance (50% correct) to nearly perfect. Using the conventional HiRes strategy, 6 of the 20 children achieved high-level tone recognition performance (i.e., ≥90% correct), whereas 7 performed at a level not significantly different from chance (50-60% correct). At the final test, either 3 or 6 mo after conversion, all children achieved tone recognition performance with HiRes 120 that was equal to or better than that with HiRes, although some children's tone recognition performance was worse initially at the 1 or 3 mo follow-up intervals than at baseline. Eight of the 20 children showed statistically significant improvement in tone recognition performance with HiRes 120 on at least one of the follow-up tests. Age at implantation was correlated with tone recognition performance at all four test intervals. Parents of most of the children indicated that the children preferred HiRes 120 more than HiRes.Conclusions-As a group, HiRes 120 did not provide significantly improved lexical tone recognition compared to HiRes, at least throughout the length of the study (up to 6 mo). There were

Objective The purpose of the present study was to test the hypothesis that cochlear implant (CI) users’ music perception is correlated with their lexical tone perception and the two types of perception share similar mechanisms in electric hearing. Design A lexical tone perception test and a pitch interval discrimination test were administered to a group of CI users and a group of normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Study sample Nineteen adult CI users and 10 NH listeners who are native-Mandarin-Chinese speakers participated in the study. Results Tone-perception performance of the CI group was, on average, 58.3% correct (± 19.78% correct), and performance of the NH group was near perfect. The CI group had a mean threshold of 5.66 semitones (± 5.57 semitones) in pitch discrimination as compared to the threshold of 0.44 semitone from the NH group. There was a strong correlation between the CI users’ tone-perception performance and their pitch discrimination threshold (r=−0.75, p<0.001). Conclusion Musical and lexical pitch perception is strongly correlated with each other and they might share similar mechanisms in electric hearing.