The effect of phantom stimulation and pseudomonophasic pulse shapes on pitch perception by cochlear implant listeners

• DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/ugkem
• Publication Date: 2020-04-15T05:03:03Z
• Authors: Wiebke Lamping; John M. Deeks; Jeremy Marozeau; Robert P. Carlyon
• Keywords: Stimulus (psychology); Electrode array

It has been suggested that a specialised high-temporal-acuity brainstem pathway can be activated by stimulating more apically in the cochlea than is achieved cochlear implants (CIs) when programmed with contemporary clinical settings. Muliple experiments were carried out to test effect of phantom stimulation and asymmetric current pulses, both supposedly beyond most apical electrode CI, on pitch perception. The two stimulus types generated using bipolar pair, composed array neighbouring, basal electrode. Experiment 1 used pitch-ranking procedure where neural excitation was shifted or basally so-called stimulation. No benefit found highest rate up which ranks increased, nor slopes function above 300 pulses per second (pps). 2 same study effects pseudomonophasic locus manipulated changing polarity. A obtained only for pps. 3 an adaptive discrimination small but significant found. Overall results show some temporal processing at high pulse rates reveal rather highly variable across listeners. also provide indication may decline over time since implantation.