Electric-acoustic pitch comparisons in single-sided-deaf cochlear implant users: Frequency-place functions and rate pitch.

Electric-acoustic pitch comparisons in single-sided-deaf cochlear implant users: Frequency-place functions and rate pitch. Hear Res. 2013 Nov 16; Authors: Schatzer R, Vermeire K, Visser D, Krenmayr A, Kals M, Voormolen M, Van de Heyning P, Clemens Z Abstract Eight cochlear implant users with near-normal hearing in their non-implanted ear compared pitch percepts for pulsatile electric and acoustic pure-tone stimuli presented to the two ears. Six subjects were implanted with a 31-mm MED-EL FLEXSOFT electrode, and two with a 24-mm medium (M) electrode, with insertion angles of the most apical contacts ranging from 565° to 758°. In the first experiment, frequency-place functions were derived from pure-tone matches to 1500-pps unmodulated pulse trains presented to individual electrodes and compared to Greenwood's frequencyposition map along the organ of Corti. While the overall median downward shift of the obtained frequency-place functions (-0.16 octaves re. Greenwood) and the mean shifts in the basal (< 240°; -0.33 octaves) and middle (-0.35 octaves) regions were statistically significant, the shift in the apical region (> 480°; 0.26 octaves) was not. Standard deviations of frequency-place functions were approximately half an octave at electrode insertion angles below 480°, increasing to an octave at higher angular locations while individual functions were gradually leveling off. In a second experiment, subjects matched the rates of un...
Source: Hearing Research - Category: Audiology Authors: Tags: Hear Res Source Type: research