Characterising distortions in cochlear implants
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Characterising distortions in sound and music quality in adults using cochlear implants: a music re-engineering approach.
IRAS ID
335150
Contact name
Deborah Vickers
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust & The University of Cambridge
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 1 months, 30 days
Research summary
Cochlear implants (CIs) are devices that restore a level of hearing for those with profound deafness, particularly in quiet conditions. However, challenges persist in areas like music perception and speech in noise: there's considerable variability in these situations among CI users, hinting at individual factors contributing to these difficulties.
Our project focuses on three individual factors: frequency-to-place mismatch (FTPM), interaural-place mismatch (IPM), and the quality of the electrode-neuron interface (ENI). We aim to develop tools for assessing the perceptual distortions caused by these factors.
We will develop three assessment procedures. The first procedure will evaluate the identification and sound quality of vowels under frequency manipulation. The second approach will investigate the harmonicity of musical sounds. The last experiment will be a sound localisation and identification task for bilateral CI users.
Three groups of CI users will be tested in this project: a control group of prelingually deaf CI users, a second group of post-lingual CI users with an extensive CI experiment (more than one year), and a third group of postlingually deaf CI users implanted recently. CI users from the third group will be tested at multiple times during the first year of CI use.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/PR/0552
Date of REC Opinion
29 May 2025
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion