Children with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder present a challenge for early intervention and habilitation because of the diversity of the disorder and the current lack of robust indicators to guide in management of this population. These challenges can result in significant delays in selecting and implementing appropriate interventions such as hearing aids and/or cochlear implants. This project focuses on cortical auditory evoked potentials as a class of objective electrophysiological measures that hold great promise in the prediction of intervention outcomes. The proposed work evaluates the association between these potentials and speech perception in children with this disorder by pursuing two specific aims.
Aim 1 focuses on the sub- group of children who use hearing aids and evaluates the utility of acoustically-evoked cortical potentials for predicting success with these devices.
Aim 2 focuses on the sub-group of children who use cochlear implants and evaluates the relationship between electrically-evoked cortical potentials and speech perception. Cortical potentials (P1-N1-P2 complex and the change complex) will be recorded from each child in response to either acoustical or electrical stimulation, as appropriate for their device. In addition, aided speech perception performance will be measured using age- and developmentally-appropriate tests. Correlations between the electrophysiological measures and speech perception performance will then be assessed. The goal of these experiments is to identify electrophysiological response features that are most informative in terms of guiding intervention strategy. As such, this project has tremendous translational significance because its findings are likely to directly impact clinical practice.

Public Health Relevance

Experiments are proposed to evaluate the relationship between the electrophysiological measures of cortical evoked potentials and the speech perception performance in children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD). The ultimate goal of the proposed study is to develop tools for early and accurate identification of the best rehabilitative strategy for each individual patient. It is likely that the electrophysiological measures investigated in this program of research might be adopted as part of clinical test-battery for ANSD patients, which will have an important impact on clinical practice.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Type
Exploratory/Developmental Grants (R21)
Project #
1R21DC011383-01A1
Application #
8191081
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-IFCN-B (02))
Program Officer
Sklare, Dan
Project Start
2011-07-05
Project End
2013-06-30
Budget Start
2011-07-05
Budget End
2012-06-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$222,000
Indirect Cost
Name
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill
Department
Otolaryngology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
608195277
City
Chapel Hill
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27599
Teagle, Holly F B; Henderson, Lillian; He, Shuman et al. (2018) Pediatric Auditory Brainstem Implantation: Surgical, Electrophysiologic, and Behavioral Outcomes. Ear Hear 39:326-336
He, Shuman; McFayden, Tyler C; Teagle, Holly F B et al. (2016) Electrically Evoked Auditory Event-Related Responses in Patients with Auditory Brainstem Implants: Morphological Characteristics, Test-Retest Reliability, Effects of Stimulation Level, and Association with Auditory Detection. Ear Hear 37:634-649
He, Shuman; Teagle, Holly F B; Ewend, Matthew et al. (2015) The electrically evoked cortical auditory event-related potential in children with auditory brainstem implants. Ear Hear 36:377-9
He, Shuman; Grose, John H; Teagle, Holly F B et al. (2015) Acoustically evoked auditory change complex in children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder: a potential objective tool for identifying cochlear implant candidates. Ear Hear 36:289-301
He, Shuman; Grose, John H; Teagle, Holly F B et al. (2014) Objective measures of electrode discrimination with electrically evoked auditory change complex and speech-perception abilities in children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. Ear Hear 35:e63-74
He, Shuman; Teagle, Holly F B; Roush, Patricia et al. (2013) Objective hearing threshold estimation in children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. Laryngoscope 123:2859-61
He, Shuman; Grose, John H; Teagle, Holly F B et al. (2013) Gap detection measured with electrically evoked auditory event-related potentials and speech-perception abilities in children with auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder. Ear Hear 34:733-44
He, Shuman; Grose, John; Hang, Anna X et al. (2012) Cochlear implant-evoked cortical activation in children with cochlear nerve deficiency. Otol Neurotol 33:1188-96
He, Shuman; Grose, John H; Buchman, Craig A (2012) Auditory discrimination: the relationship between psychophysical and electrophysiological measures. Int J Audiol 51:771-82