Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials in Persons Using Hearing Aids

Abstract

Introduction: A review of literature on usefulness of Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials (CAEPS) in verifying the usefulness of hearing aid shows equivocal results and a majority of the studies are carried out in a research laboratory. Objective: The aim of the present investigation was to investigate the usefulness of recording CAEPs for verification of hearing aids in a clinical set up. Material And Methods: CAEPs to stimulus /ma/, /ga/ and /ta/ were recorded from 14 persons with normal hearing and nine persons with mild to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss. For persons with hearing impairment, the testing was carried out without a hearing aid (unaided) and with a hearing aid (aided) programmed based on NAL NL 1 prescriptive formula. Results:The results revealed that in aided condition, the detectability of CAEP responses was more when compared to unaided condition in persons with hearing impairment. There was a significant difference between the unaided CAEP responses of persons with hearing impairment and CAEP responses of persons with normal hearing. However, no such difference was observed between aided CAEPS responses of persons with hearing impairment and those of normal hearing. Conclusions: CAEPs can be reliably recorded in a clinical set up from individuals using hearing aids. The detectability of responses increases when a person is wearing hearing aid. CAEPs will be helpful in verification of hearing aids especially in persons with moderately severe to severe hearing loss.