Psychoacoustic and electrophysiologic auditory neural encoding in school-aged children with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Professor & head of Audio-Vestibular Medicine, E.N.T. Department, Faculty of Medicine - Zagazig University

2 Professor of Audio-Vestibular Medicine, E.N.T. Department, Faculty of Medicine - Zagazig University

3 (3) (M.B., B.C.H), Faculty of Medicine-Misurata University-Libya

4 Lecturer of Audio-Vestibular Medicine, E.N.T. Department, Faculty of Medicine - Zagazig University

Abstract

Background: Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in children could impact speech processing along different levels of the auditory pathway; subcortical and cortical. The most frequently used psychoacoustic tests for temporal resolution and ordering evaluation are Gaps-In-Noise (GIN) and Pitch Pattern Sequence (PPS) tests. Moreover, speech-evoked auditory brainstem response (speech-ABR) represents an electrophysiologic test of brainstem speech processing.

Aim: to study the impact of mild to moderate SNHL on speech neural encoding in school-aged children, using psychoacoustic (GIN and PPS) and electrophysiological (speech-ABR) tests and to estimate the accuracy of the psychoacoustic and electrophysiological tests in the diagnosis of temporal processing deficit.

Methods: This observational, case-control study involved 30 school-aged children who were classified into; control group of normal-hearing children and study group of 20 children with mild to moderate SNHL. They were subjected to history-data reporting, basic audiological testing, and both psychoacoustic and electrophysiologic evaluation of the temporal auditory processing.

Results: In comparison to the control group, there were significantly higher approximate threshold (APT) measure of GIN test in the moderate SNHL subgroups, lower total correct score measure of GIN test at a lower (mild) degree of SNHL, lower PPS scores as the hearing threshold increased above normal, and longer speech-ABR latency in the moderate SNHL subgroup. All the examined measures revealed a high accuracy with the APT measure of the GIN test showing the highest accuracy (92%).

Conclusions: The psychoacoustic and electrophysiologic evaluation provided evidence of temporal auditory processing impairment in children with SNHL.

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Zagazig University Medical Journal

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 02 June 2024

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