Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions and contralateral suppressions in children with auditory listening problems

Objectives

Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) are reflections of cochlear energy produced during the processing of sound. The suppression effect identified as the decrease with the additional tone stimulator of the otoacoustic emission amplitude is use for assessing efferent auditory system function. The aim of this study is to investigate the contralateral suppression effect (CSE) of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) in children with auditory listening problems (ALPs) compared to normal hearing children.

Method

The study group (Group 1) was consisted of 12 ALP children (8 males and 4 females), aged 5–10 years, and associated with receptive and expressive language delay. The control group was consisted of (Group 2) 12 children with normal hearing levels, matched according to gender and age of TEOAEs and CSE of TEOAEs were investigated at 1.0–4.0 kHz in both groups.

Results

For right ear, at 1.0 and 3.0 kHz, TEOAE amplitudes of the ALP group were significantly lower than the control group. At 2.0, 4.0 and 5.0 kHz of the right ear and at 1.0–5.0 kHz of the left ear, TEOAE amplitudes were found as not different between ALP and control groups. Suppression values of the ALP group were significantly lower than the control group at 1.0–2.0 kHz of the right ear and at 2.0 kHz of the left ear. At the other frequencies, there was no significant difference between the suppression values of the ALP and control groups.

Conclusion

Lower suppression values in ALP group at all frequencies (significant at 1.0–2.0 and 2.0 kHz in the right and left ears, respectively) showed that cochlear and cranial maturation of the ALP group may lower than the control group. Since the age profile in both group is similar, we thought that age's effect on this results is not important. Our results showed that children with ALP have auditory processing difficulties in noisy environment. For understanding the efferent auditory system, patients with auditory processing disorders may be evaluated by the help of background noise.