Auditory and Vestibular Research
Volume:24 Issue: 4, Autumn 2015

One of the main objectives of cochlear implant surgery for parents, specialists, and trainers is that children can realize their needs using verbal communication skills. This is while there are a few instruments for evaluating children’s communication performance after cochlear implant surgery. The present study was conducted with the aim of adapting and investigating psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Functioning after Pediatric Cochlear Implantation (FAPCI). The present study is a test development, in which FAPCI was translated into Persian and then culturally adapted with conditions in Iran. To do so, 60 parents of children with cochlear implant (37 boys and 23 girls) were selected randomly. The age of these children ranged from 2 years and 3 months old to 6 years and 5 months old. The results were analyzed using correlation of items with total score, construct validity, and internal consistency. The correlation coefficients of items with the total score were significant in all cases. The results of factor analysis indicated that the scale consists of one factor which totally explains 65% of the variance. The Chronabch’s alpha coefficient for the whole inventory was calculated as 0.95. According to the results obtained from the present study, it seems that the Persian version of the FAPCI enjoys acceptable psychometric properties and it can be used for evaluating the communication performance of pre-school children.

Aging is associated with reduced cognitive abilities including attention and memory. There is some evidence that shows randomized dichotic digits test (RDDT) has enough difficulty to show the ear asymmetry in dichotic listening. This study aimed to compare the effect of free and focused attention on dichotic listening ability of young and elderly listeners. The cross-sectional comparative study was performed on fifty right-handed young (18-25 years old) and fifty right-handed aged (60-80 years old) with equal gender ratio. Recognition performance of right and left ears were compared in free and focused attention conditions. In the free attention condition, mean percent correct of right and left ears of aged group (83.1 and 61.5 respectively) was significantly lower than the scores of the young group (92.8 and 84.3 respectively with p<0.001). In focused attention to right, there was no statistically significant difference between mean of performance of the two age groups (p=0.407); however, aged group obtained significantly lower mean score in focused attention to left ear (p<0.05). Random presentation of one-, two- and three-pair of dichotic digits resulted in diminished performance of both ear of aged group in free attention and left ear performance in focused attention conditions. Lower score of aged group in randomized dichotic digits test can be better explained by combinatory (structural and attentional) model of dichotic listening.

Autoimmune inner ear disease (AIED) may accompany certain systemic conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, and manifest audiovestibular dysfunction. This study aimed to compare the vestibular function between rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients and normal subjects using cervical vestibular-evoked myogenic potentials and caloric tests. In this cross-sectional study, 25 patients with RA and 20 normal subjects underwent pure tone audiometry, acoustic immittance, cervical vestibular-evoked myogenicpotentials (cVEMPs), and bithermal caloric test which eye movements were recorded by videonystagmography. Sensorineural hearing loss was found in 40% of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, which was significantly higher than controls (p<0.05). Biphasic waveforms of cVEMPs were obtained from all of the participants. There were no significant differences in mean peak-to-peak amplitude and asymmetry ratio between the two groups (p>0.05). The mean peak latency of p13 was significantly higher in RA patients (p<0.05). The mean peak latency of n23 was statistically different in the left ear (p<0.05), but in the right ear the difference was not significant (p>0.05). Unilateral weakness in patients with RA were significantly higher than those in the control group (p<0.05). The values of directional preponderance were not significantly different between groups (p>0.05). Audiovestibular dysfunction may present in the patients with rheumatoid arthritis to a varying degree. The possible pathology was discussed in here. Further studies may shade more light to the pathogenesis of the AIED.

Research shows that 13-18 percent of the people suffer from tinnitus, almost 5 percent of which, have chronic or bothersome tinnitus. Chronic tinnitus may be accompanied by anxiety, depression, insomnia, and impairment in cognitive functions such as memory and attention. The purpose of this study was to compare the verbal auditory memory and divided attention between individuals with normal hearing in two groups of with and without tinnitus aged from 18 to 55 years old. This study were performed on 16 tinnitus patients (6 men and 10 women) aged from 23 to 53 years old and 20 healthy volunteers (3 men and 17 women) aged from 21 to 49 years old with normal hearing thresholds. Puretone audiometry (PTA), Tinnitus evaluation, dichotic auditory verbal memory test (DAVMT), Randomized dichotic digits test (RDDT), and tinnitus handicap inventory (THI) were employed for all participants. Comparing the outputs of the RDDT and DAVMT tests between control and patients groups revealed no significant difference (p=0.65, p=0.21). Based on the results of behavioral tests, divided auditory attention, and verbal auditory memory, which demonstrated no remarkable difference between control and patients groups, it is suggested that mild chronic tinnitus in individuals with normal hearing does not interfere in the divided auditory attention, verbal auditory memory.

Neonatal jaundice is one of the common causes of early sensorineural hearing loss and an important cause of deafness in children. Auditory responses are the most sensitive parts of the nervous system to the toxic effect of bilirubin. This study was aimed to examine the effect of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia and its treatment on auditory brainstem responses (ABR). In this before-after and experimental study, a total of 44 term neonates who were admitted to the neonatal ward due to bilirubin level of ≥15 mg/dl after the third day of birth were entered to the study. The first ABR examination was carried out within the first day of admission and repeated after treatment if it was abnormal. Comparisons were drawn to examine the correlation between ABR changes and the level of bilirubin and ABR changes before and after treatment of hyperbilirubinemia. p<0.05 was considered significant, and statistical power of the study was 90%. ABR was abnormal in 45% of the understudy population. The most common abnormality was prolonged latency of wave V (90%, p=0.0001). Other abnormalities were prolonged interpeak latencies (IPL) of wave I-III (85%, p=0.692), prolonged latency of wave III (65%, p=0.0001), prolonged IPL of wave I-V (25%, p= 0.087) and prolonged wave I (4%, p=0.0149). ABR was repeated on six neonates, four cases (67%) of which had normal ABR and the other two (33%) were abnormal. ABR evaluation should be routinely performed in neonates with hyperbilirubinemia regardless of the presence of bilirubin-induced encephalopathic findings.

The sexual hormones alter during menstrual cycle and pregnancy. Despite the physiological benefits of these changes, their adverse effects on hearing system such as hearing loss and vertigo have been reported. Therefore, in this study, the auditory brainstem responses (ABR) were investigated during physiological hormonal variations in the menstrual cycle as well as pregnancy. In this comparative-cross sectional research, the ABR was assessed in 25 women, including 17 pregnant and 8 non-pregnant women. The assessment was conducted at 24th week of pregnancy and in two stages of the menstrual cycle, on the 1st-3rd day and once again during the 12th-15th day in non-pregnant women (control group). Click stimuli ABR was recorded and compared between aforementioned groups. According to our results, ABR wave V absolute latency, III-V and I-V interpeak latencies were significantly longer during the 12th-15th day of menstrual cycle compared to 1st-3rd day results (p<0.05). These significant increases were observed between pregnant women and control groups (p<0.05). The research revealed the influence of hormonal changes during menstrual cycle and pregnancy on brainstem and auditory pathways. We concluded that the brainstem auditory pathways processing decelerates with the increase of estrogen and progesterone hormones.

Function-based intervention have been shown to have positive increase in social skills of children with behavioral problems. The same findings can be potentially applied to the deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) children. The present study examined the efficacy of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) on the on-task behaviors of deaf and hard of hearing students in school. Three subjects from one education center were selected. Multiple baseline design across subjects was utilized. Baseline data were collected through frequent observation of behaviors for each subject. In the intervention phase, three subjects were assigned to DRA programs. The data from the present study were analyzed by visual inspection and effect size index indicating that DRA was effective on the improvement of on-task behavior of these students. The results showed that DRA was effective on improvement of academic task behavior of D/HH students.

Quick Speech in Noise (Q-SIN) test has popularity for evaluating speech recognition in noise. The present study has been paid to build five new Persian lists with respect to all possible factors affecting the test, to determine validity of the test and to run five lists for normal hearing subjects and assessment of reliability. To build lists, frequent, familiar and difficult in terms of cognitive (cohort size of above three) words were used to construct unpredictable sentences. After determining the content and face validity, the 30 selected sentences were recorded in the studio by a familiar female speaker. The recorded sentences and prepared four talker babbling noise were combined in Cool Edit software. Then five test lists were conducted in 35, 18-35 year old individuals with normal hearing. The reliability was assessed with the retest after two weeks. The 30 sentences became valid (content and face validity) with the change according to expert judges. The average Signal to noise ratio (SNR) loss of five lists was 0.35 dB. There was no significant difference between men and women in all lists except list 4 (p=0.03). The results indicate no difference in the average SNR loss between five Lists. In reliability assessment test-retest correlation coefficient was 8.0 (p<0.05). Intra-class coefficient (ICC) for lists was statistically significant (p=0.00) and confirmed the lists have reliability and high repeatability. The Developed lists are valid, equivalent and reliable and can be utilized in clinical application.