The upper limit of temporal pitch for cochlear-implant listeners: Stimulus duration, conditioner pulses, and the number of electrodes stimulated

Robert P. Carlyon, John M. Deeks, Colette M. McKay

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    Abstract

    Three experiments studied discrimination of changes in the rate of electrical pulse trains by cochlear-implant (CI) users and investigated the effect of manipulations that would be expected to substantially affect the pattern of auditory nerve (AN) activity. Experiment 1 used single-electrode stimulation and tested discrimination at baseline rates between 100 and 500 pps. Performance was generally similar for stimulus durations of 200 and 800 ms, and, for the longer duration, for stimuli that were gated on abruptly or with 300-ms ramps. Experiment 2 used a similar procedure and found that no substantial benefit was obtained by the addition of background 5000-pps "conditioning" pulses. Experiment 3 used a pitch-ranking procedure and found that the range of rates over which pitch increased with increasing rate was not greater for multiple-electrode than for single-electrode stimulation. The results indicate that the limitation on pulse-rate discrimination by CI users, at high baseline rates, is not specific to a particular temporal pattern of the AN response. © 2010 Acoustical Society of America.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1469-1478
    Number of pages9
    JournalJournal of the Acoustical Society of America
    Volume127
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2010

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