Introduction The Mismatch Negativity (MMN) auditory evoked potential evaluation is a promising procedure to assess objectively the ability of auditory discrimination. Objective To characterize the latency and amplitude values of MMN in children with normal auditory thresholds and without auditory complaints. Methods Children between 5 and 11 years old participated in the present study. All participants underwent acoustic immittance measurements and tonal and vocal audiometry. The MMN was recorded with the MASBE ATC Plus system (Contronic, Pelotas, RS, Brazil). The electrodes were fixed in Fz (active electrode), Fpz (ground electrode) and in M2 and M1 (references electrodes). The intensity used was 80 dBHL, the frequent stimulus was 1,000 Hz and the rare stimulus was 2,000 Hz. The stimuli were presented in both ears separately. Results For the female group, the mean latencies and amplitude of MMN were 177.3 ms and 5.01 μV in the right ear (RE) and 182.4 ms and 5.39 μV in the left ear (LE). In the male group, the mean latencies were 194.4 ms in the RE and 183.6 ms in the LE, with an amplitude of 5.11 μV in the RE and 5.83 μV in the LE. There was no statistically significant difference between ears (p = 0.867 - latency and p = 0.178 - amplitude), age (p > 0.20) and the gender of the participants (p > 0.05). Conclusion Using the described protocol, the mean latency value of MMN was 184.0 ms for RE and 182.9 ms for LE, and the amplitude was 5.05 μV and 5.56 μV for the left and right ears, respective.

RESUMO Objetivo Verificar a contribuição do treinamento musical nas habilidades do processamento auditivo em crianças. Estratégia de pesquisa Realizou-se uma busca no mês de agosto de 2018, usando os descritores Music, Child, Childhood, Children, Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Auditory Perception, Auditory Processing, utilizando o operador AND. Critérios de seleção Como questão norteadora, adotou-se a seguinte pergunta: “o que existe na literatura científica sobre a contribuição do treinamento musical nas habilidades de processamento auditivo em crianças?” Após, foram selecionados somente ensaios clínicos controlados na população infantil, estudos publicados em inglês, português e espanhol. Resultados A estratégia de busca resultou na seleção de dez artigos. Os estudos evidenciaram diversas habilidades testadas e diferentes formas de avaliação. Conclusão Com base nos achados, pode-se concluir que o treinamento musical melhora e aprimora as habilidades de processamento auditivo, de forma que quanto maior o tempo de treinamento, mais essas habilidades são reforçadas. Dessa forma, o treinamento musical mostra-se um método eficaz e com potencialidade para ser utilizado em crianças, tanto no período de desenvolvimento da comunicação oral e escrita, para auxiliar a aquisição das habilidades auditivas, como após a aquisição afim de aprimorá-las.

Introduction: Mismatch Negativity (MMN) is an electrophysiological potential that evaluates the brain's capacity to discriminate sounds, regardless of attentional and behavioral capacity. Because it is an objective and user-friendly measure, it becomes promising in the study of auditory processing research in children. Purpose: To verify the applicability of Mismatch Negativity (MMN) in children. Research strategy: A search was conducted in August and September 2016 using the descriptors Evoked Potentials, Auditory AND Children, Eventrelated Potential AND Children and Electrophysiology AND Children in bibliographic collection of the electronic databases Portal BVS (Medline, IBECS and LILACS) and SciELO. Selection criteria: The selection of articles was carried out in Portuguese, English and Spanish published up to September 2016 without initial date limitation and whose approach to Mismatch Negativity was with the child population. Results: The search strategy resulted in the selection of 23 articles classified as original articles. The studies evidenced several applications of MMN in children, including autism spectrum disorder, auditory processing disorders, cleft lip and palate, prematurity, and language-specific disorder, being the majority of them in dyslexia. Conclusion: Despite the great variability involved in the measures of MMN, there is a wide clinical applicability of this electrophysiological potential in the infant population.

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Introduction  The tone-evoked auditory brainstem responses (tone-ABR) enable the differential diagnosis in the evaluation of children until 12 months of age, including those with external and/or middle ear malformations. The use of auditory stimuli with frequency specificity by air and bone conduction allows characterization of hearing profile. Objective  The objective of our study was to compare the results obtained in tone-ABR by air and bone conduction in children until 12 months, with agenesis of the external auditory canal. Method  The study was cross-sectional, observational, individual, and contemporary. We conducted the research with tone-ABR by air and bone conduction in the frequencies of 500 Hz and 2000 Hz in 32 children, 23 boys, from one to 12 months old, with agenesis of the external auditory canal. Results  The tone-ABR thresholds were significantly elevated for air conduction in the frequencies of 500 Hz and 2000 Hz, while the thresholds of bone conduction had normal values in both ears. We found no statistically significant difference between genders and ears for most of the comparisons. Conclusion  The thresholds obtained by bone conduction did not alter the thresholds in children with conductive hearing loss. However, the conductive hearing loss alter all thresholds by air conduction. The tone-ABR by bone conduction is an important tool for assessing cochlear integrity in children with agenesis of the external auditory canal under 12 months.

An association was seen between aspects of mental health and the family context with the experimentation and consumption of tobacco in adolescents enrolled in the study in Brazil. These associations are independent of school type, sex and skin colour. It is important that programmes for the prevention of tobacco use in adolescence emphasise these findings.

Objective: To compare the application time of the Automated Auditory Brainstem Response (A-ABR) between the click and CE-Chirp® stimuli. Methods: Forty-six newborns were evaluated without risk indicators for hearing loss and presenting transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE). The A-ABR was performed with Interacoustics® Titan equipment in a hospital, with the click and CE-Chirp® stimuli at the same time. Descriptive statistical analyses and inferential statistics analyses (Student's t-test calculation for mean comparisons among independent samples) were used for the variables age, gender, examination time, laterality and test stimulus used. Results: Of the 46 neonates in the sample, 23 were male and 23 female. The mean age of the sample was 23.1 days. The mean procedure time using the Click stimulus was 85.9 seconds for the right ear and 86.1 seconds for the left ear, whereas for the use of the CE-Chirp® stimulus the results obtained for the right and left ear were28.4 seconds and 27.9 seconds, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the mean times obtained through the CE-Chirp® and Click stimuli for both ears (p=0.000). There was no statistically significant difference in the comparison between the right and left ears or between females and males. Conclusion: It was found that the mean duration of the A-ABR procedure using the CE- Chirp® stimulus is three times lower than with the Click stimulus.

Purpose: Verifying the effects of rapid maxillary expansion on hearing.Research strategy: The search was conducted in the bibliographic collection of the electronic databases MEDLINE, SciELO and Bibliografia Brasileira de Odontologia (BBO) in January 2016. The keywords used for the research were: "hearing loss", "hearing", "rapid maxillary expansion" and "palatal expansion technique". Selection criteria: Articles in Portuguese, English and Spanish were selected, published up to January 2016, without initial date limitation. Studies related to the rapid maxillary expansion on hearing topic were included in this systematic review. Results: The research strategy resulted in the selection of eight articles, which were classified as clinical trials. The studies explains that the rapid maxillary expansion performed on children and/or teenagers improves hearing thresholds and acoustic impedance measurements. Conclusion: The rapid maxillary expansion caused hearing improvement, despite the methodological limitations and diversity of the analyzed studies.