1 International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound Research, Center for Research on Brain, Language and Music, Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
2 Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Clin EEG Neurosci. 2018 May;49(3):143-151. doi: 10.1177/1550059417733386. Epub 2017 Sep 28.
Cochlear implants (CIs) partially restore the sense of hearing in the deaf. However, the ability to recognize emotions in speech and music is reduced due to the implant's electrical signal limitations and the patient's altered neural pathways. Electrophysiological correlations of these limitations are not yet well established. Here we aimed to characterize the effect of CIs on auditory emotion processing and, for the first time, directly compare vocal and musical emotion processing through a CI-simulator. We recorded 16 normal hearing participants' electroencephalographic activity while listening to vocal and musical emotional bursts in their original form and in a degraded (CI-simulated) condition. We found prolonged P50 latency and reduced N100-P200 complex amplitude in the CI-simulated condition. This points to a limitation in encoding sound signals processed through CI simulation. When comparing the processing of vocal and musical bursts, we found a delay in latency with the musical bursts compared to the vocal bursts in both conditions (original and CI-simulated). This suggests that despite the cochlear implants' limitations, the auditory cortex can distinguish between vocal and musical stimuli. In addition, it adds to the literature supporting the complexity of musical emotion. Replicating this study with actual CI users might lead to characterizing emotional processing in CI users and could ultimately help develop optimal rehabilitation programs or device processing strategies to improve CI users' quality of life.
人工耳蜗（CI）部分恢复了聋人的听觉。然而，由于植入物的电信号限制和患者改变的神经通路，识别言语和音乐中的情感的能力会降低。这些限制的电生理相关性尚未得到很好的建立。在这里，我们旨在描述 CI 对听觉情绪处理的影响，并首次通过 CI 模拟器直接比较声乐和音乐情感处理。我们记录了 16 名正常听力参与者的脑电图活动，同时以原始形式和降级（CI 模拟）条件下收听声乐和音乐情感爆发。我们发现 CI 模拟条件下 P50 潜伏期延长，N100-P200 复合振幅减小。这表明通过 CI 模拟处理声音信号的编码受到限制。在比较声乐和音乐爆发的处理时，我们发现无论是在原始条件还是在 CI 模拟条件下，与声乐爆发相比，音乐爆发的潜伏期都存在延迟。这表明，尽管有耳蜗植入物的限制，听觉皮层仍能区分声乐和音乐刺激。此外，这一研究结果为支持音乐情感复杂性的文献增添了新的内容。用实际的 CI 用户复制这项研究可能有助于描述 CI 用户的情感处理，最终有助于开发最佳康复计划或设备处理策略，以提高 CI 用户的生活质量。
