Gamified psychoacoustic pitch discrimination test app - a case study

Background - a pitch mismatch is considered detrimental for binaural integration and auditory performance in asymmetric hearing rehabilitated with cochlear implant. However, current psychoacoustic pitch balancing procedures are time consuming and annoying, leading to disengagement and unreliable results.

Aim - the aim of this study is to speed up the psychoacoustic pitch discrimination test maintaining high levels of reliability and engagement with a gamified mobile-based procedure appropriate for children and adults.

Methods - a preliminary case study is presented of a mobile-based application to test pitch discrimination in an adult patient affected by asymmetric hearing loss with mild sensorineural hearing loss in one ear and profound sensorineural hearing loss rehabilitated with cochlear implant in the other ear. The details of the procedure and the results of ease of use and workload questionnaires are reported.

Results - the pitch discrimination test pointed out a frequency-specific mismatch between the unaided ear and the cochlear-implanted ear. The questionnaires’ scores suggest that the gamified procedure could be easily implemented in the testing protocol of cochlear implant fitting.

Conclusion - the results of the psychoacoustic pitch discrimination test could be useful to improve cochlear implant fitting. Research is ongoing to verify and validate the efficiency of the gamified pitch discrimination procedure reported in the present study.