Auditory Sensory Gating in Children With Cochlear Implants: A P50-N100-P200 Study

Abstract

Background: While a cochlear implant (CI) can restore access to audibility in deaf children, implanted children may still have difficulty in concentrating. Previous studies have revealed a close relationship between sensory gating and attention. However, whether CI children have deficient auditory sensory gating remains unclear.Methods: To address this issue, we measured the event-related potentials (ERPs), including P50, N100, and P200, evoked by paired tone bursts (S1 and S2) in CI children and normal-hearing (NH) controls. Suppressed amplitudes for S2 compared with S1 in these three ERPs reflected sensory gating during early and later phases, respectively. A Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham IV (SNAP-IV) scale was performed to assess the attentional performance.Results: Significant amplitude differences between S1 and S2 in N100 and P200 were observed in both NH and CI children, indicating the presence of sensory gating in the two groups. However, the P50 suppression was only found in NH children and not in CI children. Furthermore, the duration of deafness was significantly positively correlated with the score of inattention in CI children.Conclusion: Auditory sensory gating can develop but is deficient during the early phase in CI children. Long-term auditory deprivation has a negative effect on sensory gating and attentional performance.

Distinct profiles of tinnitus and hyperacusis in intensity deviant responses and auditory evoked potentials

“…Generally, P50, N100 and P200 components are related to an inhibitory function called sensory gating, such as reducing responses to repetitive stimuli (filtering out irrelevant stimuli), or detecting novel stimuli [30]. It is a multistage mechanism, with each of the three ERPs having their own function [31]. P50 and N100 usually represent a pre-attentional and an attention-triggering filter mechanism, occurring around 50 ms and 100 ms after stimulus onset, respectively [32].…”

“…Attenuated reduction in amplitudes to a second stimulus compared to an identical first stimulus have been found to be indicative of altered information processing in conditions such as schizophrenia and even in children with cochlear implants [31, 35]. Further, in a study using 1 kHz tone bursts, a bilateral tinnitus group were more sensitive to an increase in intensity from 70 dB to 90 dB SPL in terms of increasing N100 and P200 amplitudes, compared to unilateral tinnitus and control groups.…”

Hearing Loss Increases Inhibitory Effects of Prefrontal Cortex Stimulation on Sound Evoked Activity in Medial Geniculate Nucleus

“…Hearing loss has been shown to lead to reduced sensory gating of auditory information ( Campbell et al, 2020 ; Chen et al, 2021 ). This is in line with a MRI study showing reduced functional connectivity between auditory thalamus and multiple other brain regions, including parts of PFC, in individuals with hearing loss ( Xu et al, 2019 ).…”