PERCEPTION OF RHYTHMIC AND SEQUENTIAL PITCH PATTERNS BY NORMALLY HEARING ADULTS AND ADULT COCHLEAR IMPLANT USERS

Objective: This study compares the musical perception of 17 adult reci pients of the Nucleus cochlear implant using two different formant ext raction processing strategies (F0F1F2 and MPEAK). Design: Over a 12 mo period, participants were alternately switched between two strategies every 3 mo. Performance was evaluated using three measures of rhythmi c and sequential pitch perception. Results: Three individuals performe d significantly better with the MPEAK strategy on one particular rhyth m task, 11 participants performed better with the MPEAK strategy on an other rhythm task, and no significant differences were found between t he two strategies on a sequential pitch pattern task. Conclusions: Nei ther strategy seems clearly superior for perception of either sequenti al pitch or rhythmic patterns.