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Published on: December 9, 2022
Speech-evoked auditory brainstem responses in children with hearing loss
Amineh Koravand1, Rida Al Osman1, Véronique Rivest1
1Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Program, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Canada.
Objective:
The main objective of the present study was to investigate subcortical auditory processing in children with sensorineural hearing loss.
Methods:
Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABRs) were recorded using click and speech/da/stimuli. Twenty-five children, aged 6-14 years old, participated in the study: 13 with normal hearing acuity and 12 with sensorineural hearing loss.
Results:
No significant differences were observed for the click-evoked ABRs between normal hearing and hearing-impaired groups. For the speech-evoked ABRs, no significant differences were found for the latencies of the following responses between the two groups: onset (V and A), transition (C), one of the steady-state wave (F), and offset (O). However, the latency of the steady-state waves (D and E) was significantly longer for the hearing-impaired compared to the normal hearing group. Furthermore, the amplitude of the offset wave O and of the envelope frequency response (EFR) of the speech-evoked ABRs was significantly larger for the hearing-impaired compared to the normal hearing group.
Conclusions:
Results obtained from the speech-evoked ABRs suggest that children with a mild to moderately-severe sensorineural hearing loss have a specific pattern of subcortical auditory processing. Our results show differences for the speech-evoked ABRs in normal hearing children compared to hearing-impaired children. These results add to the body of the literature on how children with hearing loss process speech at the brainstem level.
