Predicting Hearing aid Benefit Using Speech-Evoked Envelope Following Responses in Children With Hearing Loss

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Audiology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Electroencephalography (EEG) offers objective audibility assessment for infants unable to undergo traditional hearing tests.
• Hearing aid benefit evaluation in children with hearing loss requires reliable, objective measures.
• Speech-evoked envelope following responses (EFRs) are an EEG-based technique with potential for audibility assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if speech-evoked EFRs can predict hearing aid benefit in children with mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss.
• To assess the relationship between EFR changes and audibility improvements with hearing aid use.
• To determine the sensitivity and specificity of EFRs in predicting audibility in aided and unaided conditions.

Main Methods:

• EFRs were recorded from 18 children with hearing loss using speech stimuli (/su∫i/) at varying sound pressure levels (SPL) in both unaided and hearing aid conditions.
• Stimuli included band-limited phonemes targeting specific formant frequencies.
• EFR amplitude and detectability were analyzed in relation to behavioral hearing thresholds and speech discrimination scores.

Main Results:

• Hearing aid use significantly improved EFR amplitude and detectability.
• EFR amplitude improvement correlated with changes in behavioral hearing thresholds.
• EFR sensitivity in predicting audibility was higher in aided (82.1%) versus unaided (66.5%) conditions, with specificity of 90.8% for inaudibility.
• Improved EFR detectability predicted better hearing aid-facilitated speech discrimination.

Conclusions:

• Speech-evoked EFRs are a valuable objective tool for predicting hearing aid benefit in children.
• EFRs provide reliable audibility information, particularly in aided conditions.
• This EEG-based measure can aid in optimizing hearing aid fitting for pediatric populations.