monikka Posted January 27, 2014 Report Share Posted January 27, 2014 Hello, I am a musician considering getting a unilateral CI but concerned about how it might affect my hearing and playing music. Are there any musicians out there who have a unilateral implant? It is important for me to understand how this surgery could affect this very important part of my life! For years after a car accident my hearing on the left has steadily declined. In the last years I've become completely deaf on that side. My other ear hears perfectly. If you are a musician with a unilateral implant or share a similar experience could you tell me about your experience? The model I'm considering getting is the Rondo. Does music sound different? Does the functional ear become dominant? Does music sound tinny? And does musical appreciation go back to normal one-sided if you remove the device? And does it affect pitch-recognition in any way? Thanks in advance for your input! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpl2ci Posted January 27, 2014 Report Share Posted January 27, 2014 Monika, Welcome to HearPeers! The US has just started implanting people with Single Sided Deafness so there aren't many people who mirror your situation. Art Kupferman is the only person I know of who has been implanted and he is still early on in his journey. I wear bilateral RONDOs but was bimodal for 5 months after wearing hearing aids for 25+ years. Which is your dominant ear? I ask because if it is your soon to implanted ear, your other ear will be working overtime to process the sound. Your implanted ear will be processing sound in a totally different way. In musical terms, your unaided side is listening to Bach's "Tocata and Fugue in D Minor" while your implant is processing Kraftwerk's "Autobahn". With proper therapy and time both sides will be working together. My hearing therapist explained the difference to me this way. Unaided ear hears top down while the implanted side hears bottom up. Music does sound different but as your brain gets used to the new "normal" the sound will become more like what you remember. Music and speech comprehension is not a sprint, it is a marathon but the journey is so worthwhile. Had it not been for the implants and people from MedEL I would not be where I am today. I chose MedEl because of their ability to help music comprehension with their software overlay called Fine Structure Processing (FSP). I look forward to your next post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Ivana Marinac Posted January 27, 2014 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted January 27, 2014 Hello Monika & welcome to the Hearpeers forum, I am not a CI implantee nor do I have single-sided-sensoneural deafness but I am collecting experiences and thought from people all over the globe - partially I am curious, but also interested because this is part of my job with special interest to this topic. Right now there are trials with an implantation of CI, which try to get as much as it is possible from the affected ear but also there are trials with Bonebridge where the initial idea is to collect sound from the other (deaf) side and to transmit it to the good ear. Recently an BB implantee from Australia wrote few lines so take this option also into consideration. I have heard for trials in UK for the first method but right now datas are still insufficient. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camille Posted January 28, 2014 Report Share Posted January 28, 2014 Welcome to HearPeers Monika and congratulations on the research you are doing in order to make an informed decision! I was implanted in July 2010 on one side after 25-30 years of wearing hearing aids. January 15, 2014 I was implanted on the other side and am awaiting activation Feb. 14th. I just wanted to "ditto" John's remarks as they are "spot on" as to what I've experienced. It was 6 months to a year or more before music sounded more closely to what I remembered. AND it greatly helped to listen to music I enjoyed in my better hearing days. Wishing you the best!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monikka Posted February 2, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 Thanks for the responses everyone! John, my dominant ear is the one that still hears properly, so I would hope that helps with music appreciation! About hearing what sounds like two tracks, would this change temporarily if I remove the implant? As in, could still hear as I do now without the confusion if I wanted a break from sorting out the conflicting signals? It would be nice to know I can at least appreciate music as much as I do now, one-sidedly, until the other kicks in.... From what I've read, it seems like music appreciation never goes completely back to "normal". This scares me a lot! I enjoy music extremely already, hearing from just one side and fear that it would sound worse if I mix it up with an aided side. Any advice about this? Yes, big decision! Thanks for your support. Ivana, I will certainly report on my experience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Matt Posted February 2, 2014 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 Hi Monica, I'm not sure if I'm in the minority but my music hearing ability has exceeded my expectations. A month or so after switch on I went to a four day music festival and was blown away by all the instruments I could hear. Even in a big band I could hear cymbals and that rattly thing that you twist - not castanets. My tonal recognition is really good also, my audi was surprised when I could tell her which was higher or lower. The only problem now is that I have to have a program that turns down the volume of live music as it's way too loud. Good luck with your decision, let us know what you choose. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Ivana Marinac Posted February 2, 2014 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 Thanks for the responses everyone! John, my dominant ear is the one that still hears properly, so I would hope that helps with music appreciation! About hearing what sounds like two tracks, would this change temporarily if I remove the implant? As in, could still hear as I do now without the confusion if I wanted a break from sorting out the conflicting signals? It would be nice to know I can at least appreciate music as much as I do now, one-sidedly, until the other kicks in.... From what I've read, it seems like music appreciation never goes completely back to "normal". This scares me a lot! I enjoy music extremely already, hearing from just one side and fear that it would sound worse if I mix it up with an aided side. Any advice about this? Yes, big decision! Thanks for your support. Ivana, I will certainly report on my experience! Hi Monika, I guess - there is still no clear answer regarding that issue. It's the situation: sit or run. Understanding of the function of cochlear implant is very lively today - this year is a big CI event in Munich (mid June) where the newest stuff will be discussed. Right now, we are still careful but please, take your time and read several articles - I am publishing their abstracts: 1) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24448287 2) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22886035 3) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21068690 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpl2ci Posted February 2, 2014 Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 Monika, OK, here we go! Unless you are listening to music with headphones, a very difficult process with the RONDO, you will be hearing mono, not stereo, but you will be hearing everything. When you remove the RONDO, you may or may not sense and music on that side. After activation, the RONDO will time late the nerve and you will start the process of hearing bilaterally. The more you listen to familiar pieces, the better your comprehension will get. You are ahead of most of us as you already know tonal scales, pitches, etc. Matt made a very good point and I agree that my comprehension continues to increase. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monikka Posted February 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 Matt, thanks for sharing! Do you have bilateral implants? I hope that my audio recognition would be more precise than higher or lower.... In the music business it's important to hear even the slightest differences. Hopefully my functional ear would take care of that and not get confused by the distorted hearing on the other side? If there are any unilateral users out there, please let me know what your experience is while wearing the implant versus taking it off... Ivana, thanks for the links! I will check them out. John, thanks also! The term "comprehension" scares me still I must admit. It's important for me to not just comprehend music but still in some way, with the implant on or off, be able to at least hear the subtleties I do on my one side at the moment. Sigh. This is a tough decision! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Matt Posted February 5, 2014 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 I am unilateral at the moment and have a tiny bit of hearing in my non implanted ear which I think helps with music recognition. When I was switched on I bought my iPod to a follow up session so we could set a map for music. I played what I thought was some of my favourite tracks but I hardly recognised them due to hearing so much more apart from the bass sounds. What do you play? I have a friend living and playing in Berlin, he loves it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monikka Posted February 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 yes, Berlin is a great place to live. the music scene, for one. just another question: when you hooked up your iPod at your session, did you have it plugged directly into the implant or did you listen through large headphones? I've heard from a unilateral implant user that music, when played plugged directly into the device, is quite a bit more distorted than with open-air hearing. would you agree, Matt? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monikka Posted February 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 oh! to answer your question, I play the violin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Matt Posted February 12, 2014 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted February 12, 2014 We played the music through the computer which didn't have the best speakers. I tries connecting directly with the FM cable but at the beginning it was too weird - distorted and horrible. Now I use headphones as I have a very small amount of hearing in my other ear so it sounds pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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