Voice pitch, musical and Pitch perception in implanted deaf children

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate vocal pitch of deaf children with cochlear implants (CI) and to identify the relation with factors as age at implantation and speech and pitch perception skills. Methods: 24 prelingually-deafened children and age/sex matched NH peers were included in the study. Assessment was performed by measuring the voice F0 with Atmos Stroboscope. As a measure of intonation, children were asked to intonate for three time the pitch of the musical note most adjacent to their F0 in terms of frequency. The average deviation from the musical note was used as index of intonation. Further, musical perception of melody, harmony and rhythm was assessed with Gordon discrimination test, to be correlated with F0 pitch discrimination test (ASSE®). Results: Although perceptive differences were always significant, there was not statistical difference in voice pitch and intonation between CI and NH children. Bilateral Children performed on average better than unilateral, but failed to show significance owing to group size. Low frequency extension of CI strategy positively influenced outcomes in harmony and F0 perception. Conclusion: The effect of early intervention, the bilateral approach to deafness and the evolution of technology have positively influenced the voice quality of IC children, despite the poor perception of the temporal structure of low-frequency sounds and musical elements such as harmony and melody.