Auditory Sensory Gating in Children With Cochlear Implants: A P50-N100-P200 Study.

Yan-Xin Chen,Rui-Rui Guan,Shuo Huang,Jia-Qiang Sun,Xiao-Tao Guo,Xiao-Yan Hou,Xin-Ran Xu,Jing-Wu Sun

doi:10.3389/fnins.2021.768427

Abstract

Background: While a cochlear implant (CI) can restore access to audibility in deaf children, implanted children may still have difficulty in concentrating. Previous studies have revealed a close relationship between sensory gating and attention. However, whether CI children have deficient auditory sensory gating remains unclear.Methods: To address this issue, we measured the event-related potentials (ERPs), including P50, N100, and P200, evoked by paired tone bursts (S1 and S2) in CI children and normal-hearing (NH) controls. Suppressed amplitudes for S2 compared with S1 in these three ERPs reflected sensory gating during early and later phases, respectively. A Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham IV (SNAP-IV) scale was performed to assess the attentional performance.Results: Significant amplitude differences between S1 and S2 in N100 and P200 were observed in both NH and CI children, indicating the presence of sensory gating in the two groups. However, the P50 suppression was only found in NH children and not in CI children. Furthermore, the duration of deafness was significantly positively correlated with the score of inattention in CI children.Conclusion: Auditory sensory gating can develop but is deficient during the early phase in CI children. Long-term auditory deprivation has a negative effect on sensory gating and attentional performance.

Highlights

There is a close link between cognitive decline and hearing loss (Dye and Hauser, 2014; HeinrichsGraham et al, 2021)
40% of cochlear implants (CIs) children attending mainstream classes could not pass the test of attention (Mukari et al, 2007), which may result in poor educational performance
The auditory and speech abilities of CI children were evaluated by Categories of Auditory Performance (CAP), Speech Intelligibility Rate (SIR), and Subject Gender Age at test CI use ABR threshold CI processor Implant type Age at CI Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) SIR CAP

Summary

Introduction

There is a close link between cognitive decline and hearing loss (Dye and Hauser, 2014; HeinrichsGraham et al, 2021). Patients with hearing loss face the risk of delays in multiple cognitive functions, such as working memory and executive function (Lieu et al, 2020). As one of the most successful neural prostheses developed to date, cochlear implants (CIs) help to restore hearing of deaf children, thereby supporting speech communication, and to enhance their cognitive abilities (Kral et al, 2019). There is a great variation in the attentional performances of CI children (Surowiecki et al, 2002). Both preschoolers and school-aged children with CIs were found to face a greater risk of deficits in the attention domain compared with NH children (Kronenberger et al, 2014). The related neural mechanism underlying poor attentional performance in CI children remains unclear. Whether CI children have deficient auditory sensory gating remains unclear

Methods

Results

Conclusion