Pitch perception by cochlear implant users (360G-Wellcome-080216_Z_06_Z)

£146,417

Cochlear implants (CIs) allow previously-deaf patients to understand speech in quiet, but are very poor at encoding pitch. This results in poor speech understanding in noise, and in reduced enjoyment of music. A major limitation is that most CI users cannot derive pitch from changes in electric pulse rate above about 300 pps, whereas normal-hearing (NH) listeners exploit temporal cues up to much higher rates. We will use both psychophysical techniques and a measure of auditory-nerve activity, the electrically evoked compound action potential (ECAP), to investigate this upper-rate limitation. We (i) Examine whether the alternating-amplitude pattern, previously observed in the ECAP to high-rate pulse trains, is responsible for the limitation. We will study manipulations that should reduce the alternation and compare the effect on the ECAP with that on pitch tasks, (ii) Study instances where pitch varies non-monotonically with rate, again using a combination of behavioural and ECAP measures, (iii) investigate whether the high-rate limitation can be overcome by concurrent stimulation of multiple electrodes. Finally, we investigate the match between the place and rate of stimulation that, it has been suggested, is important for good pitch perception.

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Grant Details

Amount Awarded 146417
Applicant Surname Carlyon
Approval Committee Neurosciences And Mental Health
Award Date 2006-10-12T00:00:00+00:00
Financial Year 2006/07
Grant Programme: Title Project Grant
Internal ID 080216/Z/06/Z
Lead Applicant Dr Robert Carlyon
Other Applicant(s) Dr Christopher Long, Prof Colette McKay
Partnership Value 146417
Planned Dates: End Date 2010-11-30T00:00:00+00:00
Planned Dates: Start Date 2007-12-01T00:00:00+00:00
Recipient Org: Country United Kingdom
Region South West