Well, you have something like 21 electrodes wound around the hearing nerve. Of those, usually four or so do not work. The rest is all you have available. Simplistically said, you can encode only 17 distinct frequencies.
There are some more intricacies involved, but the general message holds: Frequency resolution is severely impaired. Time resolution and loudness levels are diminished, too. In fact, many CI patients can not percieve music any more.
Funny enough though, they can usually enjoy music they knew from "before".
Still, it is a wonder of modern medicine to give hearing to people with nothing more than a working hearing nerve. CIs are true nerve-computer interfaces.
There are some more intricacies involved, but the general message holds: Frequency resolution is severely impaired. Time resolution and loudness levels are diminished, too. In fact, many CI patients can not percieve music any more.
Funny enough though, they can usually enjoy music they knew from "before".
Still, it is a wonder of modern medicine to give hearing to people with nothing more than a working hearing nerve. CIs are true nerve-computer interfaces.