Southampton researchers help cochlear implant users to appreciate music

As International Cochlear Implant Day approaches (Saturday, 25 February), a team of researchers at the University of Southampton are helping those with severe to profound hearing loss to perceive music through their cochlear implant using a unique and innovative online tool.

Music is a fundamental element of our world but for those with cochlear implants, the ability to hear and enjoy music can prove disappointing. Now, thanks to an interdisciplinary research team at the University of Southampton, an online tool is available to help those with a cochlear implant begin to perceive and appreciate music – many for the first time in their lives.

The research team developed a computer-based Interactive Music Awareness Programme (IMAP) - now available through the website, http://morefrommusic.org/ - to help cochlear implant users to distinguish, recognise and appreciate different musical sounds. Special software available via the website has been downloaded more than 300 times by cochlear implant users, hearing aid users and professionals who work with them. The exercises are also used in workshops organised by the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service.

To inform the development of IMAP, the team held workshops with cochlear implant users to gain a better understanding of the music styles and structures that can be appreciated by people with an implant. Drawn from across the University, the collaborators included a hearing scientist, an audiologist, musicians, a composer and music therapist from Southampton’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, Auditory Implant Service and Music department.

“Amongst cochlear implant users, often the first thing they want to access is speech and to be able to communicate with other people but many people are often interested in accessing music too,” says Dr Ben Oliver, Lecturer in Composition and collaborator on the project. “This can be tricky because music through a cochlear implant is a very different experience from what it would be like for a normally hearing listener. However, research suggests that increased engagement with music can really help people with a cochlear implant to gain enjoyment from music.

“As part of our project, we held workshops with cochlear implant users to find out ways they would like to engage with music. We involved them in practical music-making activities like drumming workshops, tried out the software we were developing and also created opportunities for them to interactively listen to live music played by student performers.”

As well as the IMAP the project led to the development of a concert of new works specifically composed by Dr Oliver for cochlear implant users.

“With electronic hearing, the sound is coming in through a microphone and processed digitally and sent to the cochlear via electrical pulses,” says Dr Oliver. “That means that the sound is quite compressed and it’s hard to hear louds and softs, for example, and implant recipients can also find it hard to perceive the difference between two different notes or two different instruments. It can be imagined as being similar to seeing a pixelated image but with sound.”

“The music I’ve composed for cochlear implant users often features big jumps between notes in contrast to a more conventional melody where you’d expect to hear the notes moving up or down by one step with occasional leaps,” he continues. “In my piece Ben’s Tune, for example, I’ve made quite big pitch jumps which are aimed at stimulating different electrodes in the cochlea to make a real difference for implant users who find it hard to distinguish small changes in melody. Also, the music is written for instruments that we know work well through cochlear implants like a saxophone, a piano and a harp – instruments with clear ‘attacks’ work very well through a cochlear implant.”

For more information on IMAP, visit http://morefrommusic.org/

For more information on the music and cochlear implant project, watch 'Compositions for Cochlear Implant Users'.

To watch the ‘Compositions for Cochlear Implantees’ concert, visit the YouTube playlist.