Evaluation of musical perception in adolescent cochlear implant users

Cochlear implant is an electronic system applied to individuals with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss. Individuals with cochlear implants lag behind their normally hearing peers, especially in perceiving music, due to some problems with how the temporal fine structures of speech are transmitted by the implant. Many studies have emphasized that the ability to perceive music in individuals with cochlear implants is not always the same, and that both areas need to be developed further. The aim of this study is to investigate music perception in adolescent cochlear implant users. 24 adolescents with unilateral cochlear implants between the ages of 12 and 18 and 12 adolescents with bilateral normal hearing were included in the study. Pitch Direction Discrimination and Melodic Contour Identification tests were applied to evaluate the musical perception of the participants. In addition, a subjective evaluation of the music was applied to the participants. A significant difference was found between the normal hearing group and the cochlear implant group in the Pitch Direction Discrimination (p= 0.07) and Melodic Contour Identification Tests (p = 0.001). There was a significant difference in lyric comprehension between the two groups (p = 0.001). A strong significant correlation was found between Pitch Direction Discrimination and Melodic Contour Identification tests (p < 0.001, r = -0.52). There was a significant difference in Pitch Direction Discrimination (p = 0.028) and Melodic Contour Identification Tests (p <0.001) between individuals with normal hearing and cochlear implant age greater than 6 years. It was concluded that cochlear implant users had great difficulty perceiving pitch and melody, and the use of cochlear implants at an early age had a significant effect on music perception.