Abstract
The objective of this cross-sectional study is to compare bone-conducted low-frequency hearing thresholds (BClf) to cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials (cVEMPs) findings in prelingual adult deaf patients. The fifty participants (100 ears) included twenty healthy controls and thirty other subjects selected from patients who presented with bilateral prelingual deafness to Department of Audiology of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services (Hamadan, Iran). Assessments comprised of audiological evaluations, cVEMPs, and computerized tomography scans. Twenty deaf patients (forty affected ears) with bilateral decreased vestibular excitability as detected by abnormal cVEMPs revealed that BClf hearing thresholds were completely absent. Ten deaf patients (twenty unaffected ears) with normal cVEMPs reported a sensation of the sound at BClf hearing thresholds (the mean for 250 Hz=41 dBHL and for 500 Hz=57.75 dBHL). Multiple comparisons of mean p 13 latencies, mean n23 latencies and peak-to-peak amplitudes between three groups were significant (P = 0.01 for all, one-way ANOVA test). Multiple Comparisons of mean BClf between three groups were significant (P = 0.00, One-way ANOVA test). Conclusion. Hypersensitivity of vestibular system to sound augments BClf hearing thresholds in deaf patients. The sensation of the sound at low frequencies may be present in patients with total deafness and normal vestibular function (predominantly saccule). This improvement disappears when saccular function is lost.
Highlights
The mammalian inner ear contains sense organs responsible for detecting sound, gravity, and acceleration
I reported that forty affected ears of the deaf patients with decreased vestibular excitability as detected by abnormal cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials had bone-conducted low-frequency (BClf) hearing thresholds were completely absent, whereas, twenty unaffected ears of them with normal cVEMPs findings reported the presence of a sensation to sound at bone-conducted low-frequency hearing thresholds (BClf) hearing thresholds
I concluded that the auditory sensitivity of the saccule augments BClf hearing thresholds in deaf patients
Summary
The mammalian inner ear contains sense organs responsible for detecting sound, gravity, and acceleration. Of these organs, the cochlea is involved in hearing, while the otolith organs (saccule and utricle) serve to detect linear acceleration [1]. Recent evidences from human show that the saccule has acoustic sensitivity to sound [2,3,4], which can contribute to the affective quality of loud low frequencies [4]. Saccular stimulation to air-conducted sound has a compensatory role for cochlear hearing in noisy conditions [3]. Saccule responds best to low frequency high-intensity air-conducted sound, and, in clamor conditions, may contribute to the hearing of this frequency band [2]. It can cooperate to frequency and intensity discrimination [5, 6]
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