Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, School of Medicine, University of California - San Francisco (UCSF), 2380 Sutter St, 1st Floor, San Francisco, CA, 94115, USA.
Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 2019 Jun;20(3):247-262. doi: 10.1007/s10162-018-00704-0. Epub 2019 Feb 27.
Cochlear implant (CI) biomechanical constraints result in impoverished spectral cues and poor frequency resolution, making it difficult for users to perceive pitch and timbre. There is emerging evidence that music training may improve CI-mediated music perception; however, much of the existing studies involve time-intensive and less readily accessible in-person music training paradigms, without rigorous experimental control paradigms. Online resources for auditory rehabilitation remain an untapped potential resource for CI users. Furthermore, establishing immediate value from an acute music training program may encourage CI users to adhere to post-implantation rehabilitation exercises. In this study, we evaluated the impact of an acute online music training program on pitch discrimination and timbre identification. Via a randomized controlled crossover study design, 20 CI users and 21 normal hearing (NH) adults were assigned to one of two arms. Arm-A underwent 1 month of online self-paced music training (intervention) followed by 1 month of audiobook listening (control). Arm-B underwent 1 month of audiobook listening followed by 1 month of music training. Pitch and timbre sensitivity scores were taken across three visits: (1) baseline, (2) after 1 month of intervention, and (3) after 1 month of control. We found that performance improved in pitch discrimination among CI users and NH listeners, with both online music training and audiobook listening. Music training, however, provided slightly greater benefit for instrument identification than audiobook listening. For both tasks, this improvement appears to be related to both fast stimulus learning as well as procedural learning. In conclusion, auditory training (with either acute participation in an online music training program or audiobook listening) may improve performance on untrained tasks of pitch discrimination and timbre identification. These findings demonstrate a potential role for music training in perceptual auditory appraisal of complex stimuli. Furthermore, this study highlights the importance and the need for more tightly controlled training studies in order to accurately evaluate the impact of rehabilitation training protocols on auditory processing.
人工耳蜗（CI）的生物力学限制导致频谱线索匮乏和频率分辨率差，使用户难以感知音高和音色。有新的证据表明，音乐训练可以改善 CI 介导的音乐感知；然而，现有的许多研究都涉及到时间密集型且不太容易获得的面对面音乐训练模式，缺乏严格的实验控制模式。听觉康复的在线资源仍然是 CI 用户未开发的潜在资源。此外，从急性音乐训练计划中立即获得价值可能会鼓励 CI 用户坚持进行植入后的康复锻炼。在这项研究中，我们评估了急性在线音乐训练计划对音高辨别和音色识别的影响。通过随机对照交叉研究设计，20 名 CI 用户和 21 名正常听力（NH）成年人被分配到两个臂中的一个。臂 A 接受 1 个月的在线自我调节音乐训练（干预），然后是 1 个月的有声读物聆听（对照）。臂 B 接受 1 个月的有声读物聆听，然后是 1 个月的音乐训练。在三个访问中进行了音高和音色敏感性评分：（1）基线，（2）干预 1 个月后，（3）对照 1 个月后。我们发现，CI 用户和 NH 听众的音高辨别能力都有所提高，无论是在线音乐训练还是有声读物聆听。然而，音乐训练在乐器识别方面比有声读物聆听提供了稍大的益处。对于这两个任务，这种改善似乎与快速刺激学习和程序学习都有关。总之，听觉训练（无论是急性参与在线音乐训练计划还是有声读物聆听）都可能改善未训练的音高辨别和音色识别任务的表现。这些发现表明，音乐训练在复杂刺激的感知听觉评估中可能发挥作用。此外，这项研究强调了需要进行更严格控制的训练研究，以便准确评估康复训练方案对听觉处理的影响。
