Behavioral and Subjective Music Perception and Appreciation in Adults with Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants, and Typical Hearing

Background/Objectives: Even with the use of hearing aid or cochlear implant technologies, adults who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) exhibit difficulty perceiving musical characteristics compared to peers with typical hearing, but do not necessarily report a consistent decrease in appreciation of musical activities. This study addresses a gap in the literature by examining the effect of both hearing status (i.e., DHH versus typical hearing) and hearing technology (i.e., hearing aids versus cochlear implants) on both behavioral and subjective music abilities and ratings of music importance. Methods: Adults with typical hearing (n = 20), hearing aids (n = 10), or cochlear implants (n = 10) completed tasks on (a) behavioral measures of music perception including pitch perception, melody recognition, and timbre recognition; and (b) the Music-related Quality of Life questionnaire to assess subjective ratings of music abilities and music importance. Results: Adults with typical hearing outperformed the cochlear implant group on all behavioral music perception tasks, but they performed similarly to the hearing aid group. Although the two DHH groups subjectively rated their musical abilities less positively than adults with typical hearing, all three groups appraised the importance of music in their lives similarly. Conclusions: Music importance and appreciation do not depend on music abilities, implying that clinicians and researchers should incorporate metrics of subjective music quality of life to comprehensively assess and treat adults who are DHH to foster more positive quality of life.