ACI 2014 Differences in Perception of Musical Stimuli Among Acoustic , Electric and Combined Modality Listeners

Introduction: An increasing body of literature indicates that adult recipients of the hybrid cochlear implant have more accurate perception of speech in background noise and salient structures of music (e.g., pitch, timbre) than recipients of conventional long electrodes (LE). Improved perception of pitch and melody is a function of preserved low-frequency hearing. Children and adolescents who have a high-frequency hearing loss, but who have considerable low-frequency hearing are participating in an FDA trial to evaluate the outcomes of a hybrid device (L24) with a younger population. To date, little is known regarding the efficacy of hybrid devices in an adolescent population, especially with regard to music perception.