External Electrical Stimulation of the Cochlea: Clinical, Psychophysical, Speech-Perceptual and Histological Findings

Fourcin, Adrian; Rosen, Stuart; Moore, Brian C. J.; Douek, Ellis; Clarke, G. P.; Dodson, H.C.; Bannister, L. H.

doi:10.3109/03005367909078883

Cited by 120 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…This range corresponds approximately to the F0 frequency range for many (but not all) speakers, and for other complex sounds such as those produced by certain musical instruments. Similar reasoning supported the development of an early single-channel extra-cochlear prosthesis (Fourcin et al, 1979), which was intended primarily as a speech-reading aid. That device also applied stimulation to the auditory nerve at a frequency derived from an estimate of F0.…”

Section: Feature-extracting Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 70%

Music Perception with Cochlear Implants: A Review

McDermott

2004

Trends in Amplification

431

390

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The acceptance of cochlear implantation as an effective and safe treatment for deafness has increased steadily over the past quarter century. The earliest devices were the first implanted prostheses found to be successful in compensating partially for lost sensory function by direct electrical stimulation of nerves. Initially, the main intention was to provide limited auditory sensations to people with profound or total sensorineural hearing impairment in both ears. Although the first cochlear implants aimed to provide patients with little more than awareness of environmental sounds and some cues to assist visual speech-reading, the technology has advanced rapidly. Currently, most people with modern cochlear implant systems can understand speech using the device alone, at least in favorable listening conditions. In recent years, an increasing research effort has been directed towards implant users’ perception of nonspeech sounds, especially music. This paper reviews that research, discusses the published experimental results in terms of both psychophysical observations and device function, and concludes with some practical suggestions about how perception of music might be enhanced for implant recipients in the future. The most significant findings of past research are: (1) On average, implant users perceive rhythm about as well as listeners with normal hearing; (2) Even with technically sophisticated multiple-channel sound processors, recognition of melodies, especially without rhythmic or verbal cues, is poor, with performance at little better than chance levels for many implant users; (3) Perception of timbre, which is usually evaluated by experimental procedures that require subjects to identify musical instrument sounds, is generally unsatisfactory; (4) Implant users tend to rate the quality of musical sounds as less pleasant than listeners with normal hearing; (5) Auditory training programs that have been devised specifically to provide implant users with structured musical listening experience may improve the subjective acceptability of music that is heard through a prosthesis; (6) Pitch perception might be improved by designing innovative sound processors that use both temporal and spatial patterns of electric stimulation more effectively and precisely to overcome the inherent limitations of signal coding in existing implant systems; (7) For the growing population of implant recipients who have usable acoustic hearing, at least for low-frequency sounds, perception of music is likely to be much better with combined acoustic and electric stimulation than is typical for deaf people who rely solely on the hearing provided by their prostheses.

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Section: Feature-extracting Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 70%

Music Perception with Cochlear Implants: A Review

McDermott

2004

Trends in Amplification

431

390

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“…The range of currents between the detection threshold and the point at which an uncomfortable sensation occurs can be very small and is typically in the range 3 to 20 dB (27,28). This is much less than the dynamic range of acoustic hearing, which is approximately 120 dB (16).…”

Section: Coding In Cochlear Implantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experiments with animals suggest that phase locking to electric stimuli is very precise (25,67), so one might expect that frequency could be represented very precisely in the pattern of phase locking. In practice, people with cochlear implants show a rather poor ability to detect changes in the periodicity of the electric waveform applied to a single electrode, and most cannot discriminate changes at all for repetition rates above approximately 300 Hz (27,28).…”

Section: Coding In Implantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coding of Sounds in the Auditory System and Its Relevance to Signal Processing and Coding in Cochlear Implants

Moore

2003

Otology & Neurotology

146

127

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Objective: To review how the properties of sounds are "coded" in the normal auditory system and to discuss the extent to which cochlear implants can and do represent these codes. Data Sources: Data are taken from published studies of the response of the cochlea and auditory nerve to simple and complex stimuli, in both the normal and the electrically stimulated ear. Review Content: The review describes: 1) the coding in the normal auditory system of overall level (which partly determines perceived loudness), spectral shape (which partly determines perceived timbre and the identity of speech sounds), periodicity (which partly determines pitch), and sound location; 2) the role of the active mechanism in the cochlea, and particularly the fast-acting compression associated with that mechanism; 3) the neural response patterns evoked by cochlear implants; and 4) how the response patterns evoked by implants differ from those observed in the normal auditory system in response to sound. A series of specific issues is then discussed, including: 1) how to compensate for the loss of cochlear compression; 2) the effective number of independent channels in a normal ear and in cochlear implantees; 3) the importance of independence of responses across neurons; 4) the stochastic nature of normal neural responses; 5) the possible role of across-channel coincidence detection; and 6) potential benefits of binaural implantation. Conclusions: Current cochlear implants do not adequately reproduce several aspects of the neural coding of sound in the normal auditory system. Improved electrode arrays and coding systems may lead to improved coding and, it is hoped, to better performance.

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“…These changes have been shown to be powerful cues to accent perception in Dutch speech (Cohen & t'Hart, 1967). Cues to the location of stressed syllables in English have also been investigated: various workers have demonstrated that pitch is a sufficient cue for the perception of stress (Bolinger, 1958;Faure, Hirst, & Chafcouloff, 1980;Fourcin, Rosen, Moore, Douek, Clarke, Dodson, & Bannister, 1979;Fry, 1958;Lieberman, 1960;Morton & Jassem, 1965). In view of the perceptual salience of these changes in speech, Thomassen argued that there was no reason why they should be less effective in music.…”

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confidence: 99%

A figural approach to the role of melodic contour in melody recognition

Dyson

Watkins

1984

Perception & Psychophysics

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These experiments looked at specific components of melodic contour, reversals in pitch, and nonreversals, using a short-term recognition memory paradigm. Listeners found it easier to discriminate between same and different melody pairs if changes occurred at contour reversals. This result was independent of rate of presentation, suggesting that the salience of upper and lower reversals is not attributable to a form of perceptual streaming. These results suggest an analogy between auditory and visual contours. If melodic contour is represented as a series of pitches extending over time, then reversals can be interpreted as "comers" and nonreversals &s "slopes." The results are consistent with a global strategy of perceptual analysis whereby comers are more salient because they "define the figure." An alternative explanation is that the melodies are processed in a way that is similar to the processing of the intonation pattern of speech. These contour feature effects were drastically reduced when the second melody was transposed and/or following a familiarization procedure. This last result is attributed to a more detailed perceptual analysis being performed under these conditions, a process that is less influenced by contour. Therefore,while specificcontour features, reversals in pitch, playa part in the recognition of untransposed novel melodies, these features are not prevalent in the recognition of transposed and more familiar sequences.In an attempt to understand melody perception, numerous investigators have drawn upon perceptual . principles derived from other modalities. Analogies have been made with the perception of visual figures, and by comparing similarities and differences between modalities the utility of general principles of perceptual organization has been explored. This paper concentrates on the role of melodic contour in the recognition of tone sequences. Here melodic contour is broken down into components, and this represents a departure from the practice of previous workers, such as Dowling and Fujitani (1971). These authors describe contour as the overall pattern or shape of the melody, and this consists of the series of directions of pitch change (the ups and downs in pitch), disregarding the magnitude of the pitch change. The present investigation is designed to examine the perceptual significance of smaller elements of the overall contour, that is, contour components. These are examined in relation to general ideas concerning the perceptual representation of auditory sequences.A number of previous studies have investigated the role of melodic contour in melody recognition. In these studies, either the contour remained the same This work was supported by a grant from SERe. The authors wish to acknowledge the invaluable technical support provided by the Reading Department of Psychology, in particular that of Dave Martin, The authors' mailing address is: Department of Psychology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 2AL, England. or the pattern of ups and downs was changed in ...

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External Electrical Stimulation of the Cochlea: Clinical, Psychophysical, Speech-Perceptual and Histological Findings

Cited by 120 publications

References 5 publications

Music Perception with Cochlear Implants: A Review

Music Perception with Cochlear Implants: A Review

Coding of Sounds in the Auditory System and Its Relevance to Signal Processing and Coding in Cochlear Implants

A figural approach to the role of melodic contour in melody recognition

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