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Two studies examined adult cochlear implant (CI) users' ability to match auditory rhythms occurring in music to visual rhythms occurring in dance (Cha Cha, Slow Swing, Tango and Jive). In Experiment 1, adults CI users (n = 10) and hearing controls matched a music excerpt to choreographed dance sequences presented as silent videos. In Experiment 2, participants matched a silent video of a dance sequence to music excerpts. CI users were successful in detecting timing congruencies across music and dance at well above-chance levels suggesting that they were able to process distinctive auditory and visual rhythm patterns that characterized each style. However, they were better able to detect cross-modal timing congruencies when the reference was an auditory rhythm than when the reference was a visual rhythm. Learning strategies that encourage cross-modal learning of musical rhythms may have applications in developing novel rehabilitative strategies to enhance music perception and appreciation outcomes of child implant users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study was undertaken to evaluate the musical sounds in cochlear implants (MuSIC) perception test, created to assess the music-listening abilities of cochlear implant (CI) users. Thirty-one unilateral MED-EL COMBI 40+/PULSARCI100 users and a control group of 67 adults with normal hearing (NH) participated. The MuSIC test comprises six objective and two subjective modules employing approximately 2800 musical files recorded from non-synthesized instruments. A subset was used for comparing CI and NH participants' results. CI and NH participants performed significantly differently on: pitch discrimination, melody discrimination, chord discrimination, instrument detection, and instrument identification. No significant difference in performance was seen on the subtests of rhythm discrimination or dissonance rating and emotion rating. The MuSIC test was found to be a valuable tool for assessing music perception in CI users and NH participants, whether investigating one aspect of music perception in depth or conducting a broad survey of music perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]