Benefits of Music Training for Perception of Emotional Speech Prosody in Deaf Children With Cochlear Implants

Objectives: Children who use cochlear implants (CIs) have characteristic pitch processing deficits leading to impairments in music perception and in understanding emotional intention in spoken language. Music training for normal-hearing children has previously been shown to benefit perception of emotional prosody. The purpose of the present study was to assess whether deaf children who use CIs obtain similar benefits from music training. We hypothesized that music training would lead to gains in auditory processing and that these gains would transfer to emotional speech prosody perception …

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Interplay between singing and cortical processing of music: a longitudinal study in children with cochlear implants

Epämuodolliset musiikkiaktiviteetit, kuten laulaminen, saattavat johtaa parempaan kuullun havaitsemiseen ja tarkkaavuuteen. Tutkimme 4-13 vuotiaiden normaalisti kuulevien ja sisäkorvaistutetta (SI) käyttävien lasten äänten muutosten havaitsemista ja sen kehitystä mittaamalla heidän aivovasteitaan kahdesti (ajankohdilla T1 ja T2, 4-17 kuukauden välein). Vertasimme heidän MMN vasteitaan (esitietoista äänten havaitsemista) ja P3a vasteitaan (kuulotarkkaavuuden kääntymistä selvästi havaittavia äänten muutoksia kohti) muutoksille pianon äänen korkeudessa, laadussa, kestossa sekä taukoihin, ja sitä, voiko laulaminen parantaa SI-lasten kuulohavaintotaitoja ja – tarkkaavuutta …

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The perception of prosody and associated auditory cues in early-implanted children; the role of auditory working memory and musical activities

We studied prosodic perception in early-implanted children in relation to auditory discrimination, auditory working memory, and exposure to music. Word and sentence stress perception, discrimination of fundamental frequency (F0), intensity and duration, and forward digit span were measured twice over approximately 16 months. Musical activities were assessed by questionnaire. The participants were twenty-one early-implanted and normal-hearing (NH) children (age 4–13 years). As a result, children with cochlear implants (CIs) exposed to music performed better than others in stress perception and F0 discrimination …

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Cortical processing of musical sounds in children with Cochlear Implants

We studied the neurocognitive mechanisms of musical instrument sound perception in children with Cochlear Implants (CIs) and in children with normal hearing (NH). ERPs were recorded in a new multi-feature change-detection paradigm. Three magnitudes of change in fundamental frequency, musical instrument, duration, intensity increments and decrements, and presence of a temporal gap were presented amongst repeating 295 Hz piano tones …

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