Mismatch negativity as a marker of music perception in individual cochlear implant users: A spike density component analysis study

[Display omitted] •MMN measurements predict individual cochlear implant (CI) users’ behavioral music perception.•MMN is detected in fewer CI users when sound deviants are of smaller magnitude.•New spike density component analysis method enables more accurate diagnostics than preceding state-of-the-art. Ninety percent of cochlear implant (CI) users are interested in improving their music perception. However, only few objective behavioral and neurophysiological tests have been developed for tracing the development of music discrimination skills in CI users. In this study, we aimed to obtain an accurate individual mismatch negativity (MMN) marker that could predict behavioral auditory discrimination thresholds. We measured the individual MMN response to four magnitudes of deviations in four different musical features (intensity, pitch, timbre, and rhythm) in a rare sample of experienced CI users and a control sample of normally hearing participants. We applied a recently developed spike density component analysis (SCA), which can suppress confounding alpha waves, and contrasted it with previously proposed methods. Statistically detected individual MMN predicted attentive sound discrimination ability with high accuracy: for CI users 89.2% (278/312 cases) and for controls 90.5% (384/424 cases). As expected, MMN was detected for fewer CI users when the sound deviants were of smaller magnitude. The findings support the use of MMN responses in individual CI users as a diagnostic tool for testing music perception. For CI users, the new SCA method provided more accurate and replicable diagnostic detections than preceding state-of-the-art.