The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 126, No. 5, pp. EL128–EL133, November 2009
©2009 Acoustical Society of America. All rights reserved. 
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Perceptual fusion of polyphonic pitch in cochlear implant users
Patrick J. Donnelly
Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Benjamin Z. Guo and Charles J. Limb
Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland 21287
(Received: 29 July 2009; accepted: 27 August 2009; published online: 29 September 2009)In music, multiple pitches often occur simultaneously, an essential feature of harmony. In the present study, the authors assessed the ability of cochlear implant (CI) users to perceive polyphonic pitch. Acoustically presented stimuli consisted of one, two, or three superposed tones with different fundamental frequencies (f0). The normal hearing control group obtained significantly higher mean scores than the CI group. CI users performed near chance levels in recognizing two- and three-pitch stimuli, and demonstrated perceptual fusion of multiple pitches as single-pitch units. These results suggest that limitations in polyphonic pitch perception may significantly impair music perception in CI users. ©2009 Acoustical Society of America
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