Use of heart rate response for the assessment of hearing in infants
Insights
Investigating heart rate (HR) response in infants under 12 months reveals a brief HR deceleration indicating hearing ability. This method shows promise as a supplementary tool for infant hearing evaluations.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Pediatric Medicine
- Physiological Psychology
Background:
- Assessing hearing in infants is crucial for early intervention.
- Traditional audiological tests can be challenging in non-verbal infants.
- Heart rate (HR) response offers a potential objective measure.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the clinical utility of heart rate (HR) response as an index of hearing in infants under 12 months.
- To determine the reliability and detectability of HR responses to auditory stimuli in this age group.
Main Methods:
- Auditory stimuli (tone bursts) of 100 msec duration were presented to infants.
- Averaged HR responses were analyzed, focusing on HR deceleration.
- Response detectability was assessed at different frequencies (250 Hz, 1 kHz, 4 kHz) and intensities (40, 60, 80 dB).
Main Results:
- The most prominent HR response was a brief deceleration occurring 1-2 beats post-stimulation.
- Response detectability increased with stimulus intensity: 50% at 40 dB, 82% at 60 dB, and 100% at 80 dB for 250 Hz and 1 kHz.
- Detectability showed a slight decrease at 4 kHz stimulation.
Conclusions:
- The averaged heart rate (HR) deceleration is a reliable indicator of auditory perception in infants.
- This HR response method is a potentially useful supplementary tool for infant hearing evaluations.
- Despite individual variability, the HR response method aids in assessing hearing in young children.
Abstract:
The clinical utility of the heart rate (HR) response as an index of hearing in infant children under 12 months of age was investigated. The most prominent component of the averaged HR response elicited with a short tone burst of 100 msec duration was a brief HR deceleration which mostly occurred between the first and second beats after stimulation. The mean response detectability for tones of 250 Hz and 1 kHz were 50, 82 and 100%, with stimulations of 40, 60 and 80 dB above subjective threshold of normal adults, respectively. The detectability decreased a little at 4 kHz stimulation. Though there was an individual variability in the appearance of the response, the method was considered to be useful as a supplementary tool for evaluating hearing in infant children.
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