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Music and Cochlear Implants

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@markoo355 said:

because the electrodes that are inserted into the cochlea are not able to transmit all sound frequencies

Yes, correct. The man made cochlear array that is surgically inserted into the cochlea is not as sophisticated as the human ear.

I don’t know the answer to your question, others here might.
Just thinking about how technology changes daily it seems very possible.

New music is difficult for me with bilateral . Old music that I remember from the past can sound very much like it used to before losing my hearing. It just goes to show how flexible our brains are.

In reply to @Deaf_piper

@Deaf_piper - I understand that it wouldn’t work for you given your situation, but I think perhaps I have not described it correctly - the aid would not be on the un- side sending sound to the CI side, but on the CI side, sending sound to the un-CI side. In other words, for people like me who can make out pitches with our hearing-aided side, in a group musical situation, we would take off our CI gear and replace it with a CROS aid to send sounds from the side that no longer hears to the hearing-aided ear.

In reply to @Raudrive

Isn’t that really auditory memory? My friend who has had a for 8 years can’t recognize old songs until her husband tells her the name. Then she remembers the lyrics, and then she can “hear” them.

In reply to @markoo355

@markoo355 said:

Is there a chance to develop it to be better?? Supposedly, manufacturers put more electrodes, but I’m not sure how much it improves the sound?

I think there’s also the technical limitation of feeding the electrode all the way to the central cochlear. The space is too small for the (current-day) electrode to fit. Without getting the electrode all the way in, the part of the cochlear that senses lower frequency sounds is not being stimulated.

@bcarp said:

the part of the cochlear that senses lower frequency sounds is not being stimulated.

Seems I remember it the other way around.
The big end of the cochlea is low frequency. The smaller end further into the cochlea is higher frequencies.

Interesting thread.

All of us people each have opinions of CI.
We all made the big decision to do it for whatever reasons.

For me it was just trying to have a good conversation and maybe hear some good music.

In reply to @bcarp

I understand now, but that doesn’t mean it will be like that forever. It just means that one day they will come to improve the electrode push, like they have a robot for microsurgery. Now they do it by hand, but one day it will be smaller and it will be done by a robot that will be able to do small complicated actions.

@markoo355 My array was inserted with special equipment guiding the placement of the electrodes within the cochlear. I can’t say if it was a robot or not as that wasn’t mentioned.

I believe it is called the cochlear SmartNav system

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In reply to @Deaf_piper

@Deaf_piper said:

It doesn’t shut down all music though, just bagpipes.

Sheryl, I just listened to three bagpipe songs.
Watching the performers hands I could hear all keys played or at least I felt like I could. The music was not good but I could definitely hear the rhythm of the songs.

Granted, I am the furthest thing from a music person but I feel like if I listened to the bagpipes regularly they would sound much better in time.

@Raudrive said:

Watching the performers hands I could hear all keys played or at least I felt like I could. The music was not good but I could definitely hear the rhythm of the songs

Rick I can hear the rhythm, most of the notes and the beat as well. For me it’s not “true pitch” though. Which makes me question the top 2 notes. The pitch I hear is flat, not true pitch.

The fact that you can hear all the notes, makes me wonder if it’s because your a bilateral recipient… With myself being and my L ear doesn’t hear high frequencies… I have to wonder if this is my problem with clarity and pipe music.

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