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Cortical Encoding of Pitch Contour Changes in Cochlear Implant Users: A Mismatch Negativity Study Fawen Zhang*, Chelsea Benson*, and Qian-Jie Fu†

A better understanding of melodic pitch perception in cochlear implants (CIs) may guide signal
processing and/or rehabilitation techniques to improve CI patients' music perception and
appreciation. In this study, the mismatch negativity (MMN) in response to infrequent changes in
five-tone pitch contours was obtained in CI users and normal hearing (NH) listeners. Melodic
contour identification (MCI) was also measured. Results showed that MCI performance was
poorer in CI subjects than in NH subjects; The MMNs were missing in all CI subjects for the 1-
semitone contours. The MMNs with the 5-semitone contours were observed in a smaller
proportion of CI subjects than in NH subjects. Results suggest that encoding of pitch contour
changes in CI users appears to be degraded, most likely due to the limited pitch cues provided by
the CI and deafness-related compromise of brain substrates.

Subjects--Topical Terms:
cochlear implant; ; ;
mismatch negativity;
electrophysiology
pitch contour
music perception