Dual-electrode pitch discrimination with sequential interleaved stimulation by cochlear implant users

Cochlear implant users may perceive intermediate place-pitches between those elicited by,the individual electrodes when two electrodes are stimulated simultaneously or sequentially. This study examined pitch discrimination between adjacent electrodes using sequential dual-electrode stimulation in terms of the sensitivity index, d', which was obtained by adding d's from intermediate dual-electrode stimuli. Loudness was balanced for each tested pair and the intensities were roved. Twelve ears with the Nucleus (R) 24 or Freedom implants demonstrated a wide range of d', from 0.7 to 9.6. Virtual channels can be implemented through nonsimultaneous stimulation, with comparable pitch discrimination to that observed with simultaneous stimulation. (c) 2006 Acoustical Society of America