Subject: Re: Do deaf humans (CI users) like music? From: Robbin Wood <raw25(at)georgetown.edu> Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2005 17:19:40 -0500>"I have some hesitation to believe that following some deaf people who get an CI on early age can shed much light on the development of music perception as we also know many people who, while having good hearing do not have interest in and appreciation of music." **************************** Leon, I agree that enjoyment/appreciation of music would be somewhat difficult to study. However, many aspects of music are perceived by non-musicians as well as for musicians. For instance, most people can tell if they hear a "sour" note in a melody, whether or not they have had formal training in music. In several event-related potential studies by Koelsch et al., incongruent chords elicited similar ERP components (i.e. ERANs and N5s) in both musicians and non-musicians. And in several ERP studies by Mireille Besson and her colleagues, deviant notes and chords elicited late positive components (or P600s) in musicians and non-musicians (although these components are larger in musicians). In addition, studies by Bharucha & Stoeckig show priming effects for chords that are related with respect to Western Tonal rules (for instance, in-tune target chords were more quickly and more likely to be judged in tune when following a related chord). These priming effects did not correlate with the subject's amount of musical training. What would be interesting (and informative about the development of music perception) would be if congenitally deaf CI users exhibit these behavioral and/or ERP effects ONLY if the CI were implanted before a "critical" age (or if these effects vary gradually with respect to age at CI implantation). These results could provide information about how the brain's ability to learn musical rules (and rules in other auditory domains such as speech) and how this ability changes with age and decline in neural plasticity. **************************** >"On the other hand I can imagine that if she would get an implant at her age the unidentifiable noises coming from such an implant would interfere with her way of appreciating music. This is certainly the experience of one of her sisters." **************************** This is interesting. Did her sister perceive music as a bunch of random, distracting noises? Do you know how old she was when she received her CI? ~Robbin Robbin A. Wood Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience Georgetown University 3900 Reservoir Rd., NW Washington DC 20007 (202) 687-8449 -- Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 266.4.0 - Release Date: 2/22/2005