Music perception and its correlation with auditory speech perception in pediatric Mandarin-speaking cochlear implant users.

Abstract

Background: Cochlear implants (CI) help regain perception of sound for patients with sensorineural hearing loss. The ability to recognize music pitch may be crucial for recognizing and producing speech for Mandarin.

Aims/objectives: This study aims to search for possible influencing factors of music perception and correlations between music perception and auditory speech abilities among prelingually deaf pediatric Mandarin-speaking CI users.

Material and methods: Music perception of 24 pediatric CI users and 12 normal hearing children was measured using the MuSIC test. Auditory speech perception of the 24 CI users was also measured and analyzed with their music perception results.

Results: Pediatric CI users performed worse than normal hearing children in pitch, rhythm and melody discrimination tests (p < .05). Significant difference in pitch and melody discrimination tests between age at implantation <5 and >5 groups was found. There were significant correlations between perception of consonants, tones, and speech in a noisy environment and perception of music pitch and melody.

Conclusion and significance: Prelingually deaf pediatric CI users who received implantation before the age of five perform better in music perception tests. Pediatric CI users with better music perception show better auditory speech perception of Mandarin.