Evaluting the effect of long-term monaural hearing aid usage via auditory brainstem response
,
Abstract
Background and Aim: Studies have shown that long-term use of monaural hearing aid in symmetrical hearing losses may lead to physiological changes. In this research, the possibility of plasticity occurrence in bilaterally hearing impaired listeners fitted with only one hearing aid was investigated.
Methods: Our study was carried out on 12 elderly listeners with a mean age of 61.92 years who had symmetrical moderate to severe sensory neural hearing loss in both ears. All of the participants had minimum monaural hearing aid experience of 2 years. We used auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing in order to compare absolute latency and amplitude of wave V between the two ears of cases. Air conduction click stimuli were presented monaurally at 80, 90 and 100 dB nHL.
Results: Despite the shorter absolute latency of wave V in the fitted ear, no significant difference was found between the two ears (p>0.389). The difference between wave V amplitude of both ears was greater in 90 dB nHL level (p=0.043). Women showed shorter mean latency than men and the mean amplitude of women was greater than men. Significant gender difference was observed in absolute latency of wave V (p<0.037).
Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the use of monaural hearing aid in symmetrical hearing losses can induce neural plasticity within auditory brainstem pathways which can be displayed by auditory brainstem response test.
2. Don M, Kwong B. Auditory brainstem response: differential diagnosis. In: Katz J, editor. Handbook of clinical audiology. 5th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2002. p. 274-98.
3. Munro KJ, Pisareva NY, Parker DJ, Purdy SC. Asymmetry in auditory brainstem response following experience of monaural amplification. Neuroreport. 2007;18(17):1871-4.
4. Munro KJ. Reorganization of the adult auditory system: perceptual and physiological evidence from monaural fitting of hearing aids. Trends Amplif. 2008;12(3):254-71.
5. Philibert B, Collet L, Vesson JF, Veuillet E. The auditory acclimatization effect in sensorineural hearing-impaired listeners: evidence for functional plasticity. Hear Res. 2005;205(1-2):131-42.
6. Sakhuja S, Munjal S, Panda NK. Auditory plasticity. Does it really exist? a preliminary study. GJMR. 2010;10(1):12-15
7. Roeser RJ, Valente M, Hosford-Dunn H. Audiology diagnosis. New York: Thieme Medical Publisher; 2007.
8. Hall JW. New handbook of auditory evoked responses. Boston: Pearson Education; 2007.
9. Illing RB, Reisch A. Specific plasticity responses to unilaterally decreased or increased hearing intensity in the adult cochlear nucleus and beyond. Hear Res. 2006; 216-217:189-97.
10. Song JH, Skoe E, Wong PC, Kraus N. Plasticity in the adult human auditory brainstem following short -term linguistic training. J Cogn Neurosci. 2008;20(10):1892-902.
11. Neuman AC. Central auditory system plasticity and aural rehabilitation of adults. Rehab Res Dev. 2005; 42(2):169-85.
12. Thai-Van H, Philibert B, Veuillet E, Collet L. Assessment of auditory plasticity using psychoacoustic and electrophysiological measurements. Audiologic Med. 2009;7(1):55-66.
13. Johnson KL, Nicol T, Zecker SG, Kraus N. Developmental plasticity in the human auditory brainstem. Neurosci. 2008;28(15):4000-7
14. Irvine DRF, Fallon JB, Kamke MR. Plasticity in the adult central auditory system. Acoust Aust. 2006;34(1):13-17
15. Will B, Dalrymple-Alford J, Wolff M, Cassel JC. The concept of brain plasticity-paillard's systemic analysis and emphasis on structure and function. Behav Brain Res. 2008;192(1):2-7.
| Issue | Vol 22 No 4 (2013) | |
| Section | Research Article(s) | |
| Keywords | ||
| Auditory brainstem response (ABR) hearing loss hearing aid neural plasticity | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
