TY - CONF
T1 - Mismatch Negativity Based Neurofeedback for Cochlear Implant Users
AU - Luckmann, Annika
AU - Başkent, Deniz
AU - Jolij, Jacob
PY - 2015/12/19
Y1 - 2015/12/19
N2 - Cochlear implant (CI) users experience great difficulty when it comes to pitch discrimination. This leads to problems during daily interactions, due to poor speech perception, but also a very low pleasure ratings for music. Improving pitch perception and discrimination in CI users would improve their overall quality of life and quality of personal interactions. The aim of this study is to increase pitch perception in CI users using a single-trial based neurofeedback paradigm. / In a pilot study, we tested three CI users with a paradigm based on Vuust et al (2011), which was designed to test musical ability in normal hearing adults. During the experiment, participants are watching a nature documentary while tone are played in the background. The auditory stimuli are short melodies of 4 tones. Each trial consists of 3 melodies: 2 standard, 1 target. In the target melody the third tone differs from the standard melody by 1 semitone. Participants are asked to neglect the tones and concentrate on the documentary. Throughout the study, EEG measurements are taken. For all CI users, a clear mismatch negativity can be observed for the target stimuli. This suggests an unconscious perception of the target. When asked to count target stimuli in a control block after the experiment, participants were not able to consciously categorize the target. We believe that it is possible to train CI users’ pitch perception with a single-trial based neurofeedback paradigm, aiming at perceptuallearning.
AB - Cochlear implant (CI) users experience great difficulty when it comes to pitch discrimination. This leads to problems during daily interactions, due to poor speech perception, but also a very low pleasure ratings for music. Improving pitch perception and discrimination in CI users would improve their overall quality of life and quality of personal interactions. The aim of this study is to increase pitch perception in CI users using a single-trial based neurofeedback paradigm. / In a pilot study, we tested three CI users with a paradigm based on Vuust et al (2011), which was designed to test musical ability in normal hearing adults. During the experiment, participants are watching a nature documentary while tone are played in the background. The auditory stimuli are short melodies of 4 tones. Each trial consists of 3 melodies: 2 standard, 1 target. In the target melody the third tone differs from the standard melody by 1 semitone. Participants are asked to neglect the tones and concentrate on the documentary. Throughout the study, EEG measurements are taken. For all CI users, a clear mismatch negativity can be observed for the target stimuli. This suggests an unconscious perception of the target. When asked to count target stimuli in a control block after the experiment, participants were not able to consciously categorize the target. We believe that it is possible to train CI users’ pitch perception with a single-trial based neurofeedback paradigm, aiming at perceptuallearning.
M3 - Abstract
ER -