Comparison of Two Music Training Approaches on Music and Speech Perception in Cochlear Implant Users.

Only nineteen participants were studied, and they were not matched across groups, so chance differences in age, implant experience, or baseline hearing could affect the results. The researchers did not blind participants or experimenters to group assignment, so expectations may have influenced subjective ratings and possibly task performance. The training was short, six weekly two-hour sessions, so it may not show what longer or more frequent therapy would do. The music therapy programme combined music perception, musical speech perception, emotional speech perception, singing, playing an instrument, improvising music, and social interaction, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated. The pitch/timbre programme combined melodic contour identification, instrument identification, and daily-life sound identification, so its effect cannot be attributed to one exercise. Some positive findings came from within-group or post-hoc tests after overall training effects were not significant, so they should be read cautiously. The quality-of-life questionnaire may not have captured the changes the training could produce. The control group did not receive subjective ratings like the music therapy group, so session-by-session subjective improvement cannot be compared across groups.

The study was funded by Advanced Bionics, the Heinsius-Houbolt Foundation, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development, and a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship at the University Medical Center Groningen. Advanced Bionics makes cochlear implant systems, but the paper does not state whether it designed the study, analysed the data, or wrote the manuscript.

Do not conclude that music training improves everyday speech understanding in cochlear implant users. Word and sentence identification showed no clear training benefit. The emotion identification gain was only within the music therapy group, and the overall between-group test did not support a general effect. The music therapy group also received music perception, musical speech perception, emotional speech perception, singing, playing an instrument, improvising music, and social interaction, so no single component can be credited.