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Introduction: While a cochlear implant (CI) can restore the speech intelligibility in patients with profound hearing loss to a high degree the perception of music is deteriorated and often described as unpleasant. Especially pitch and timbre information cannot be reproduced with sufficient detail by[for full text, please go to the a.m. URL], 22. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Audiologie

Music is difficult to access for the majority of CI users as the reduced dynamic range and poor spectral resolution in cochlear implants (CI), amongst others constraints, severely impair their auditory perception. The reduction of spectral complexity is therefore a promising means to facilitate music enjoyment for CI listeners. We evaluate a spectral complexity reduction method for music signals based on principal component analysis that enforces spectral sparsity, emphasizes the melody contour and attenuates interfering accompanying voices. To cover a wide range of spectral complexity reduction levels a new experimental design for listening experiments was introduced. It allows CI users to select the preferred level of spectral complexity reduction interactively and in real-time. Ten adult CI recipients with post-lingual bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss and CI experience of at least 6 months were enrolled in the study. In eight consecutive sessions over a period of 4 weeks they were asked to choose their preferred version out of 10 different complexity settings for a total number of 16 recordings of classical western chamber music. As the experiments were performed in consecutive sessions we also studied a potential long term effect. Therefore, we investigated the hypothesis that repeated engagement with music signals of reduced spectral complexity leads to a habituation effect which allows CI users to deal with music signals of increasing complexity. Questionnaires and tests about music listening habits and musical abilities complemented these experiments. The participants significantly preferred signals with high spectral complexity reduction levels over the unprocessed versions. While the results of earlier studies comprising only two preselected complexity levels were generally confirmed, this study revealed a tendency toward a selection of even higher spectral complexity reduction levels. Therefore, spectral complexity reduction for music signals is a useful strategy to enhance music enjoyment for CI users. Although there is evidence for a habituation effect in some subjects, such an effect has not been significant in general.

Hintergrund Musikhören wird von postlingual ertaubten Cochlea-Implantat-Trägern (CI-Trägern) oft als wenig angenehm empfunden. Ursache hierfür ist die begrenzte spektrale Auflösung aufgrund der geringen Anzahl von Elektroden im CI [ref:1], [ref:2]. Ein[zum vollständigen Text gelangen Sie über die oben angegebene URL], 4. Dreiländertagung D-A-CH, 35. Wissenschaftliche Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Phoniatrie und Pädaudiologie (DGPP)

Supplemental material, Supplemental_Figure_1_012818_Hussain_et_al._Early_Indication_of_Noise_Induced_Hearing_Loss_in_Young_Adult_Users_of_Personal_Listening_Devices for Early Indication of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Young Adult Users of Personal Listening Devices by Timon Hussain, Carol Chou, Erika Zettner, Peter Torre, Stefan Hans, Johannes Gauer, Marius Markgraf and Quyen T. Nguyen in Annals of Otology, Rhinology & Laryngology