Cortical auditory plasticity in children with Cochlear implants

Nader Saki,Arash Bayat,Majid Karimi,Meysam Kiani,Mozafar Sarafraz,Soheila Nikakhlagh,Mina Riahi

doi:10.29333/ejgm/94219

Abstract

Objectives:The purpose of the current study was to investigate plasticity of auditory system following cochlear implants (CI) in prelingually severe to profound hearing-impaired chil¬dren using cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) and correlate it with auditory perception performance.Methods:A total of 28 (15 boys, 13 girls) children with profound hearing loss, who underwent CI at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Iran, were included in this study. Their mean age at the time of implantation was 21.3 months. All children were evaluated before implantation and 3 months after implantation using the CAEPs and categorical auditory performance (CAP). For CAEP measurement, the stimuli on the HEARLab system (/m/, /g/, and /t/) were extracted from running speech and presented at 65 dB SPL.Results:The mean CAP and P1 amplitude values were increased from pre-CI condition to 3-month post-CI condition (Paired t-test, p 0.05).Conclusion:The present study indicated that early cochlear implantation, will improve cortical auditory plasticity and auditory performance ability in pre-lingual hearing-impaired children.

Highlights

Normal development of the auditory cortex is largely dependent on sufficient auditory stimulation
Because of the increased potential of the cortex to be altered during early childhood period, either auditory stimulation or auditory deprivation can seriously influence the maturation of auditory cortical structures and associated behavioral abilities [1,2]
Our findings revealed that the mean P1 amplitudes has been increased from pre-cochlear implants (CI) condition to pre-CI stage for all tested sounds (Paired t-test, p

Summary

Introduction

Normal development of the auditory cortex is largely dependent on sufficient auditory stimulation. Cochlear implants (CIs) are the most effective neural prosthesis for delivering auditory inputs to individuals with severe to profound hearing loss by bypassing the damaged cochlea and directly stimulating the auditory nerves [3,4,5]. It seems that within 3-6 month post-implantation, auditory cortex undergoes significant reorganization and some alternations in stimulus processing and discrimination can be seen within days after the initial processor fitting [6,7,8,9].

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Conclusion