Cortical auditory evoked potentials in children using hearing aids

Abstract Cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) are considered the electrophysiological equivalent of the pure tone audiogram (PTA) and can be used to assess the functional consequences of auditory deprivation and hearing aid acclimatization. Objectives: Threshold estimation and central auditory system evaluation in normal hearing children and those with hearing loss using cortical auditory evoked potentials. Study design: This work involved two groups: GI (20 normal hearing children) and GII (36 children with moderately-severe flat sensorineural hearing loss. The second group was divided into two subgroups: GIIa (20 children fitted with hearing aids) and GIIb (16 children not yet fitted with a hearing aid). Methodology: Basic audiological evaluation and CAEPs using speech and tone stimuli were performed and compared. The latencies and amplitude of different CAEP components were compared between both groups at the same sensation level. Results: GIIb showed a larger difference at 500 Hz compared to other frequencies, in contrast to GI and GIIa. CAEP latencies were significantly delayed in GIIb compared to GI or GIIa but CAEP amplitude showed no significant difference. Conclusions: Tone or speech evoked-cortical potentials can be used for threshold estimation in children with a high degree of consistency across different frequencies. Hearing aids can impact on cortical processing of simple or complex stimuli.