Pitch and Timing in the Songs of Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants

Abstract

CONGENITALLY DEAF CHILDREN (5-10 years) who use cochlear implants and hearing children of comparable age sang songs from memory. Analyses of their performances revealed timing similarities in the songs of deaf and hearing children but substantial differences in pitch patterning. Whereas hearing children accurately reproduced the relative pitch patterns of the songs they sang, deaf children did not. Deaf children's pitch range was considerably smaller than that of hearing children, and their pitch changes were unrelated to the direction of pitch change in the target songs. For child implant users, the power and pleasure of music may arise primarily from its rhythm. Received February 2, 2006, accepted July 22, 2006Key words: singing, children, deaf, pitch, timing, cochlear implant C OCHLEAR IMPLANTS ARE BECOMING THE prostheses of choice for many deaf children and adults. In general, the devices, which convert acoustic input into electrical signals that are transmitted to the brain (Loizou, 1999), enable deaf adults to perceive speech effectively in favorable (i.e., quiet) listening environments. These implants also enable many congenitally deaf children to acquire the spoken language

The Ear Is Connected to the Brain: Some New Directions in the Study of Children with Cochlear Implants at Indiana University

“…Moreover, children with cochlear implants produced melodic contours with a greater pitch range than children with normal hearing. These results were surprising given that previous studies had found compressed pitch ranges in songs produced by children with cochlear implants (Nakata et al, 2006; Xu et al, 2009). …”

“…Although children with cochlear implants have difficulty perceiving and producing musical melody (e.g., Nakata et al, 2006; Vongpaisal et al, 2006; Xu et al, 2009), they can discriminate pitch intervals in a nonmusical context (Vongpaisal et al, 2006). To get a sense of the potential relation between prosody and music production in children with cochlear implants, we asked the same groups of children to perform a series of melodic contours (up, down, up-down, down-up) and to sing the familiar song “Happy Birthday” (Bergeson, Chin, et al, 2010).…”

Music Therapy for Preschool Cochlear Implant Recipients

“…Keep in mind, however, that singing with others is possibly the most difficult of all musical tasks to achieve with any degree of accuracy, given that the implant does not provide good pitch resolution (Nakata, Trehub, Mitani, & Kanda, 2006). In considering this fact, one might question whether singing should be included in music therapy programming for preschool implant recipients.…”

Prosody perception and musical pitch discrimination in adults using cochlear implants

“…For example, child CI users preserve the rhythms but not the pitch contours (i.e., patterns of rising and falling pitches) when they sing familiar songs (Nakata, Trehub, Mitani & Kanda, 2006;Xu et al, 2009). Although this pattern is mirrored, to some extent, in the song production of amusic individuals, some individuals with severe pitch perception deficits manage to produce accurate contours and intervals when singing familiar songs with words, which reveals an unexpected dissociation between perception and action (Dalla Bella, Giguère & Peretz, 2009).…”