Music perception and speech intelligibility in noise performance by Italian-speaking cochlear implant users

Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate the performance correlations between music perception and speech intelligibility in noise by Italian-speaking cochlear implant (CI) users.

Materials and methods: Twenty postlingually deafened adults with unilateral CIs (mean age 65 years, range 46-92 years) were tested with a music quality questionnaire using three passages of music from Classical Music, Jazz, and Soul. Speech recognition in noise was assessed using two newly developed adaptive tests in Italian: The Sentence Test with Adaptive Randomized Roving levels (STARR) and Matrix tests.

Results: Median quality ratings for Classical, Jazz and Soul music were 63%, 58% and 58%, respectively. Median SRTs for the STARR and Matrix tests were 14.3 dB and 7.6 dB, respectively. STARR performance was significantly correlated with Classical music ratings (r_s = - 0.49, p = 0.029), whereas Matrix performance was significantly correlated with both Classical (r_s = - 0.48, p = 0.031) and Jazz music ratings (r_s = - 0.56, p = 0.011).

Conclusion: Speech with competitive noise and music are naturally present in everyday listening environments. Recent speech perception tests based on an adaptive paradigm and sentence materials in relation with music quality measures might be representative of everyday performance in CI users. The present data contribute to cross-language studies and suggest that improving music perception in CI users may yield everyday benefit in speech perception in noise and may hence enhance the quality of listening for CI users.