Improving music perception and appreciation for cochlear implant users

Hearing devices, such as hearing aids and cochlear implants, are commonly believed to be able to fully restore hearing abilities, much as a pair of glasses restores vision. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Although hearing devices restore the ability to understand speech remarkably well, music perception and appreciation are still problematic for most users. These problems need to be addressed, as they greatly impair the well-being and productivity of people with impaired hearing.

This program is currently focussing on several different projects:

▪ Improving Auditory Stream Segregation

Music perception and intelligibility of speech in a noisy environment are related to the ability to segregate different noises according to their source. Therefore our objective is to provide Bionic Ear users with enhanced electrical stimulation that provides them with better perception of music and voice-pitch. 

►Hearing aid users willing to volunteer their time are currently needed for this research project, please contact:

Hamish - hinnes-brown[at]bionicea[dot]org

if you are interested. More details here.

Music & Pitch Project on Facebook

Read our blog for updates on the research project and related info.

▪ The Travelling Wave sound processing strategy

This strategy for cochlear implants is a new method for processing sound that is based upon how sound is processed in the human auditory pathway. Travelling wave delays are the frequency dependent delays for sounds that arise because of the time it takes for the vibration to travel along the cochlear partition (basilar membrane) in the cochlea. This research forms part of Daniel Taft's PhD and he is supervised by Prof Tony Burkitt and Dr David Grayden.
Funding: Harold Mitchell Foundation

▪ The Spike-based Temporal Auditory Representation (STAR)

STAR is a new strategy based on the auditory model. Unlike most of the current strategies that stimulate each electrode at same fixed pulse rate, this strategy uses an adaptive pulsation rate where the pulse rate on each electrode is set according to the frequency of the incoming sound. Preliminary results have already shown a significant improvement of the perception of speech in a noisy environment.
Funding: NHMRC, Helen Macpherson Smith Trust and Victorian Lions Foundation.


▪ Improving sound quality in cochlear implants

Timbre is an attribute of auditory sensation which allows listeners to judge that two sounds similarly presented, and having the same loudness and pitch, are dissimilar. This attribute is not only important to recognise a speaker's voice or a musical instrument, it will also convey emotional information through the harmony and the roughness of the sounds. It is therefore crucial in order to appreciate music.

Funding
Soma Health Pty Ltd
The Jack Brockhoff Foundation
Goldman Sachs JBWere Foundation