Auditory and Vestibular Research
Volume:23 Issue: 1, 2014

One of the non-pathological factors affect otoacoustic emissions is body position. In the present study، the effect of side-lying position on evoked otoacoustic emission properties and related existing assumptions were investigated.

The cross-sectional study was performed on 42 adults aged 18-25 years. The results of Transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) test were recorded and analyzed in sitting، supine، and side-lying (Ipsi and Contra) positions to compare the total response level، whole wave reproducibility، signal to noise ratio in frequencies of 1 to 5 KHz، and the lasting time of the test.

Changing of the body position had a significant effect on total response level، whole wave reproducibility، and lasting time of the test (p<0. 010) while this effect on signal to noise ratio was just found at 1 KHz (p<0. 001). The highest total response level and lowest lasting time of the test values were observed in side-lying (contra) position (p<0. 050).

Side-lying position (contra) is the best position for the TEOAEs test. The results of this study partly confirm intracranial pressure change hypothesis that intracochlear fluid pressure increase in the auditory system; although there are contradictions in this field.

Several studies have demonstrated deficits in rapid naming in dyslexic readers; however the extent of deficit is different in various orthographies. This study was intended to survey the naming speed in Persian children with dyslexia. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) task of 19 children with dyslexia were compared with 31 nondyslexic children. Participants were selected from the students of the second grade of primary schools in Tehran city، Iran، with normal intelligence [intelligence quotient]. Nondyslexic children were at the age of 7. 7 to 8. 7 years (mean=7. 6) and dyslexics were 7. 8 to 9. 4 years old (mean=8. 1). Reading accuracy and speed were assessed by text reading (Diagnostic Reading Test)، and high frequency word، low frequency word and nonword reading (Reading and Dyslexia Test). Dyslexic readers needed more time than non-dyslexics when naming objects (p<0. 001)، numbers (p=0. 001) and letters (p<0. 001). The mean of dyslexics z-scores were -1. 98 on objects، -1. 96 on numbers and -3. 35 on letters. 42% of dyslexics did not show any deficit on rapid automatized naming task. All of the subtests were correlated to reading speed (p<0. 050)، but among subtests of rapid automatized naming task، only letter naming was correlated to reading accuracy (p<0. 050). More than half of dyslexics cases showed an apparent deficit in naming speed (objects، numbers and letters)، which was more evident at letters. Naming speed was related to reading accuracy and reading speed; although the relationship was stronger with the second one.

The language sample analysis (LSA) is more common in other languages than Persian to study language development and assess language pathology. We studied some psychometric properties of language sample analysis in this research such as content validity of written story and its pictures، test-retest reliability، and inter-rater reliability. We wrote a story based on Persian culture from Schneider’s study. The validity of written story and drawn pictures was approved by experts. To study test-retest reliability، 30 children looked at the pictures and told their own story twice with 7-10 days interval. Children generated the story themselves and tester did not give any cue about the story. Their audio-taped story was transcribed and analyzed. Sentence and word structures were detected in the analysis. Mean of experts'' agreement with the validity of written story was 92. 28 percent. Experts scored the quality of pictures high and excellent. There was correlation between variables in sentence and word structure (p<0. 05) in test-retest، except complex sentences (p=0. 137). The agreement rate was 97. 1 percent in inter-rater reliability assessment of transcription. The results of inter-rater reliability of language analysis showed that correlation coefficients were significant. The results confirmed that the tool was valid for eliciting language sample. The consistency of language performance in repeated measurement varied from mild to high in language sample analysis approach.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the central nervous system diseases can be associated with a variety of symptoms such as hearing disorders. The main consequence of hearing loss is poor speech perception، and temporal acuity has important role in speech perception. We evaluated the speech perception in silent and in the presence of noise and temporal acuity in patients with multiple sclerosis. Eighteen adults with multiple sclerosis with the mean age of 37. 28 years and 18 age- and sex- matched controls with the mean age of 38. 00 years participated in this study. Temporal acuity and speech perception were evaluated by random gap detection test (GDT) and word recognition score (WRS) in three different signal to noise ratios. Statistical analysis of test results revealed significant differences between the two groups (p<0. 05). Analysis of gap detection test (in 4 sensation levels) and word recognition score in both groups showed significant differences (p<0. 001). According to this survey، the ability of patients with multiple sclerosis to process temporal features of stimulus was impaired. It seems that، this impairment is important factor to decrease word recognition score and speech perception.

Teachers are a large group of professional voice users that several risk factors and voice demands causes various voice complaints among them. As the voice is multidimensional، the aim of this study was acoustic and perceptual measurement of teachers’ voice and comparing the findings between two groups with many and few voice complaints. Sixty female teachers of high school in Sari، north of Iran، were chosen by available sampling to participate in this cross-sectional study. According to a voice complaints questionnaire، 21 subjects located in few voice complaints and 31 in many voice complaints group. After a working day، subjects completed a voice self-assessment questionnaire. Also، teachers’voice were recorded during three tasks including sustained vowels /a/ and /i/، text reading and conversational speech. Acoustic parameters were analyzed by Praat software and 2 speech-language pathalogists performed auditory-perceptual assessment by GRBAS (Grade، Roughness، Breathiness، Asthenia، Strain) scale. Comparing of the voice self-assessment between the two groups demonstrated statistically significant difference (p<0. 05); however results of the acoustic and auditory-perceptual measurement did not show significant diffrence. Despite prevalent voice problems in teachers، there are various conditions in terms of complaints and assessments methods. In this study، only a remarkable deviation documented in the client-based assessments in many voice compliants group in comparison with few voice compliants، which would be probably related to different individual’s perception of voice problem between two groups. These results support paying attention to self-assessments in clinical process of voice problems.

Navigation information is processed and stored in different brain areas such as hippocampus. Since multiple pathways has been reported between vestibular nuclei and hippocampus and also cognitive dysfunction specifically in spatial memory is induced by vestibular deficits، it can be assumed that vestibular system stimulation ameliorates spatial memory. The aim of study was to evaluate the effect of galvanic vestibular stimulation on normal individual’s spatial memory. In this experimental-interventional study، sixty 18-30-years-old women were randomly allocated in intervention and control groups. Intervention group undergone subthreshold bilateral bipolar galvanic vestibular stimulation and control group received sham stimulation. Stimulation was presented for 15 minutes. Corsi Block Tapping (CBT) test scores were compared before and after subthreshold bipolar galvanic vestibular stimulation exposure or no stimulation in each group and between groups. All test parameters were the same in both groups before stimulation (p<0. 050). There were significant improvement in block span، total score and learning score in intervention group after galvanic vestibular stimulation (p<0. 050)، no significant difference in delayed score (p=0. 600). Learning score was improved (p=0. 003) and delayed score was deteriorated (p=0. 010) in control group. Percentages of block span and total score in intervention group were significantly different compared to the other group (p<0. 050). Galvanic vestibular stimulation improves short-term and long-term spatial memory. This test may inherently have learning effect that is not influenced by stimulation.

Most of the researches are about bilingual children with specific language impairment and importance of it in recognition and treatment. This study aimed to assess verb morphology in bilinguals with specific language impairment (SLI) and compare them with normal bilinguals. Six bilingual (Azeri and Persian) children with specific language impairment at the age of 7-8 years were collected from clinics of Tehran، Iran. They were evaluated about verb morphology using narrative speech and specific language impairment test and then، compared with six age-matched and six other language-matched children as control group. Children with specific language impairment were diagnosed by exhibiting a significant delay (more than one year) in language that can not be explained by intelligence deficits، hearing loss or visual impairment. We used Man-Whitney test for comparing the groups. Bilingual children with specific language impairment had delay in comparison with their age-matched group in subject-verb agreement (p=0. 020) and articulating tense morphemes (p=0. 019). They also had meaningful delay in using proper tense of verbs (past، present، and future) in comparison with language-matched control group (p=0. 029). Comparison of typical development of bilingual children and bilinguals with specific language impairment shows that verb morphology is a good clinical marker for diagnosing and treatment of these children.

Attention has causal role in speech and language processing. Studies are limited about relation between attention and language development. As a result، the purpose of this study was to investigate the difference shifting attention function in children with developmental stuttering and fluent speech. Thirty children who stutter (21 boys and 9 girls) and thirty children who did not stutter (21 boys and 9 girls) were evaluated. Shifting attention function was investigated using Wisconsin card sorting test. The data were analyzed via Kolmogorov-Smirnov، independent t، and Mann-Whitney U-tests. Between group analysis showed significant differences for all of the indexes in Wisconsin card sorting test. The number of categories completed in children who stutter was significantly less than that control group (p<0. 05). But preservative errors، total errors، total tries، time of test performance and try for first pattern in children who stutter was more than in the control group and data differences were significant for all of the indexes (p<0. 05). The findings of this study show that children with and without stuttering are different in shifting attention function and children who stutter have weaker function in shifting attention. The findings were linked to emerging theoretical frameworks of stuttering development and that were taken to suggest a possible role for attention processes in developmental stuttering.

Non-linear frequency compression is a new feature in hearing instruments compresses the voices of a high-frequency region above a certain cut-off point and transfers them to the lower frequency regions in order to improve the audibility. In this study، we aimed to survey the effect of this feature on the total level of hearing skills of children with profound hearing loss at the age of 3-4 years. Twenty two 3-4-years-old children with profound hearing loss were selected with improbable simple sampling. 11 of them had hearing instruments with non-linear frequency compression and 11 had traditional hearing instruments. Tavana test (Jarollahi، 2009) was used to compare the level of hearing skills in these two groups. Comparison of mean scores of total level of hearing skills in two groups indicated a significant difference (p <0. 001). Also، the mean scores of level in all subtests، detection (p=0. 022)، determination (p=0. 005)، recognition (p=0. 039) and comprehension (p=0. 010)، showed significant differences. Using the hearing instruments with non-linear frequency compression would increase the total level of hearing skills in children with profound hearing loss at the ages of 3-4-years and also، in all skill of detection، determination، recognition and comprehension.

Discourse-based interventions were studied less in speech therapy. This study aimed to investigate the effects of discourse-based intervention on language disabilities in school-aged children with borderline intelligence quotient (IQ). In an experimental study، 33 students at the age of 6-13 years with borderline intelligence quotient (17 students for intervention and 16 students for control group) were selected with available sampling. The intervention lasted 14 sessions (every session: 45 minutes) that focused on the structure and content of discourse. Personal narrative was elicited with explanation of the same topic (go to a trip) for pre- and post-test. Mean scores of intelligence quotient، age and education had no difference between the two groups. The intervention caused the increase of compound sentences (p=0. 038)، types of cohesive conjunctions (p=0. 003)، and related information (p=0. 008) and decrease of ungrammatical sentences (p=0. 031). Our findings indicate that participation in the intervention program has a clinically significant effect on the participants'' abilities to produce personal narrative.