Music and Cochlear Implants - V1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Frequency discrimination and music enjoyment in adult cochlear implant listeners
IRAS ID
322880
Contact name
Deborah Vickers
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & The University of Cambridge
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
A096610, Protocol V1.0
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 0 days
Research summary
Cochlear Implants are designed to improve hearing for people with profound hearing loss, and those who get little to no benefit from hearing aids. Although cochlear implants are a great success, music and speech-in-noise perception can still be challenging in cochlear implant users who do not have natural hearing. In a previous study, we found that cochlear implant users were better able to hear the difference in music chords when the second note (out of three) was lowered than when the third note was raised. We believe that these effects could be due to hearing new sounds when two sounds get close together, which are called beats. This may make it easier for cochlear implant users to hear the difference between tones if they use the beat cue. The ability to detect beats could play a strong role in speech and music perception for cochlear implant users. Therefore, the aim of this study is to understand more about how cochlear implant users hear the difference between tones, and how this relates to their speech and music perception. We propose to do this by having cochlear implant users to complete listening tasks involving pure tones, varying tones, chords and speech-in-noise. We would take around 4 hours with breaks in between and this will be split into two separate sessions.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
23/PR/1267
Date of REC Opinion
2 Feb 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion