Contralateral Suppression of Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions in Children with Phonological Disorder

Abstract

Background Perception of acoustic details in the speech signal is important for speech sound development. The medial olivocochlear pathway, a part of the auditory efferent system, plays a role in stimulus-related control of the cochlea. One clinical tool to evaluate the medial olivocochlear activity, which is thought to improve speech perception in noise, is the suppression of otoacoustic emissions. Aims This study investigated the suppression of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions in children with phonological disorder in comparison with that in typically developing controls. Study Design Case-control study. Methods A total of 23 children with phonological disorder (aged 5–10 years) and 21 age- and sex-matched controls ( P > 0.05) participated in the study. Participants had pure-tone thresholds ≤ 15 dB hearing loss and normal middle ear functions. Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions with and without contralateral acoustic stimulation were measured. Results Although the mean transient evoked otoacoustic emissions suppressions were lower in the group with phonological disorder than in the controls, these differences were not statistically significant ( P > 0.05). No left/right ear asymmetry of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions suppression was detected in either of the groups ( P > 0.05). Conclusion Children with phonological disorder did not show alterations in medial olivocochlear functioning in the medial olivocochlear activity as measured by the contralateral suppression of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions.

The short-term effect of COVID-19 on the cochleovestibular system in pediatric patients

“…Efferents from the MOC originate from the medial part of the Superior Olivary Complex and terminate in the outer hair cells. The activation of MOC efferents causes a decrease in signals from outer hair cells (as obtained via OAE), which is called suppression [ [27] , [28] , [29] ]. MOC efferents have critical functions in hearing.…”

Does SARS-CoV-2 affect cochlear functions in children?

“…This phenomenon is defined as CLS of OAEs and it eases the determination of the MOC functions efferent system. 15 - 17 …”

“…This phenomenon is defined as CLS of OAEs and it eases the determination of the MOC functions efferent system. [15][16][17] Medial olivocochlear efferent system has some critical tasks in hearing processes. It supports auditory perception in noisy environment via anti-masking and this complex mechanism maintains improved tone determination, intensity, and speech discrimination.…”

“…The absence of contralateral suppression )CS( is an abnormal result that indicates the deficiency of the efferent auditory mechanism. [15][16][17] Coronavirus disease-2019 morbidity and mortality have been lower in pediatric patients compared to the elderly. However, there are still not enough studies in pediatric patients.…”

“…The absence of contralateral suppression (CS) is an abnormal result that indicates the deficiency of the efferent auditory mechanism. 15 - 17 …”