Abstract
Objective: To compare the differences in musical instrument identification at different stimulation rates between older and younger cochlear implant (CI) users.
Method: All subjects used Advanced-Bionics CII or HighRes90k devices. There was a younger (age less than 65; n = 7) and older (age greater than 64; n = 5) group. They used a novel 5-channel map with stimulation rates of 800, 1200, 2000, and 3000 pps. Subjects underwent music testing with 10 instruments played at 65dB SPL.
Results: Scores ranged from 22% to 70%. In the younger group, performance significantly increased with increasing stimulation rate (P = .0003). A significant difference in performance was noted in the younger group between 3000 pps and 800 pps (P = .0254). Younger subjects performed best at 3000 pps and worst at 1200 pps. In the older group, there was no significant correlation between stimulation rate and performance. Older subjects performed best at 2000 pps and worst at 800 pps. There was no significant difference between performance at any rates within the older group. There was no significant difference between the scores in the younger and older group at any stimulation rate.
Conclusion: We found that stimulation rate affects musical instrument identification for younger CI users, who benefit from higher rates. Older subjects performed best at 2000 pps but generally showed no difference across stimulation rates. Older users may benefit from individualized maps for speech and music with differing stimulation rates.
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