scholarly journals Pure tone discrimination with cochlear implants and filter-band spread

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luise Wagner ◽  
Reyhan Altindal ◽  
Stefan K. Plontke ◽  
Torsten Rahne

AbstractFor many cochlear implant (CI) users, frequency discrimination is still challenging. We studied the effect of frequency differences relative to the electrode frequency bands on pure tone discrimination. A single-center, prospective, controlled, psychoacoustic exploratory study was conducted in a tertiary university referral center. Thirty-four patients with Cochlear Ltd. and MED-EL CIs and 19 age-matched normal-hearing control subjects were included. Two sinusoidal tones were presented with varying frequency differences. The reference tone frequency was chosen according to the center frequency of basal or apical electrodes. Discrimination abilities were psychophysically measured in a three-interval, two-alternative, forced-choice procedure (3I-2AFC) for various CI electrodes. Hit rates were measured, particularly with respect to discrimination abilities at the corner frequency of the electrode frequency-bands. The mean rate of correct decision concerning pitch difference was about 60% for CI users and about 90% for the normal-hearing control group. In CI users, the difference limen was two semitones, while normal-hearing participants detected the difference of one semitone. No influence of the corner frequency of the CI electrodes was found. In CI users, pure tone discrimination seems to be independent of tone positions relative to the corner frequency of the electrode frequency-band. Differences of 2 semitones can be distinguished within one electrode.

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elif Tugba Sarac ◽  
Bilgehan Boke ◽  
Semsettin Okuyucu

Introduction: Sickle cell anemia is a disease characterized by a wide vaso-occlusive incident from micro-vascular incident to muscularactivity. The cochlear function can also get affected by this vaso-occlusion. Objective: It is aimed at determining what kind of effects sickle cell anemia has on hearing and balance system. Methods: This study has been conducted on 46 patients with sickle cell anemia and 45 healthy individuals. For all participants, their pure tone hearing thresholds and videonystagmography (VNG) findings have been determined in 17 frequencies between 125–16.000 Hz. Results: All hearing thresholds between 125 and 16,000 Hz, pure tone averages of patients with sickle cell anemia have been found statistically significant to be higher than the corresponding values in the control group(p < 0.05). The normal hearing rate of patients with sickle cell anemia has been determined to be 71.1% conductive hearing loss (CHL) to be 4.4%, sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) to be 22.2%, and mixed type hearing loss to be 2.2% in right ear; the normal hearing rate has been determined to be 71.1%, CHL to be 2.2%, SNHL to be 22.2%, and mixed type hearing loss to be 4.4% in left ear. Statistically significant difference has not been found between head shake, spontaneous nystagmus, optokinetic, tracking test batteries, static and dynamic positional tests used in VNG, saccade accuracy and saccade peak velocity, which are saccadic test findings of 2 groups. However, saccadic latency, which is a saccadic test finding, has been determined to be longer in patients with sickle cell anemia in comparison to the control group. Conclusion: While sickle cell anemia causes hearing deficits, it does not have any effect on the central or peripheral vestibular system.


1999 ◽  
Vol 113 (4) ◽  
pp. 318-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koichi Tsunoda ◽  
Shizue Takahashi ◽  
Minako Takanosawa ◽  
Yoshitaka Shimoji

AbstractWe wondered how many women had experienced a sensation of fullness in the ear during pregnancy. To address this question, data were obtained from a group of healthy women who attended the gynaecology clinic in our hospital as pregnancy cases between February 1995 and January 1998 and who volunteered to participate in our study. A control group was drawn from healthy female co-medical staff members of our hospital who had never been pregnant. The data used for comparing the two groups were taken from a questionnaire about ear problems that was presented to all subjects. The results suggest that ear problems may be increased in pregnancy, particularly for hypotensive pregnant women. However, even for pregnant women complaining of ear problems, pure-tone audiometry and impedance audiometry showed normal hearing in all cases. Furthermore, these women's complaints resolved completely on delivery of their babies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 104-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luise Wagner ◽  
Stefan K. Plontke ◽  
Torsten Rahne

Pitch perception is more challenging for individuals with cochlear implants (CIs) than normal-hearing subjects because the signal processing by CIs is restricted. Processing and perceiving the periodicity of signals may contribute to pitch perception. Whether individuals with CIs can discern pitch within an iterated rippled noise (IRN) signal is still unclear. In a prospective controlled psychoacoustic study with 34 CI users and 15 normal-hearing control subjects, the difference limen between IRN signals with different numbers of iterations was measured. In 7 CI users and 15 normal-hearing control listeners with single-sided deafness, pitch matching between IRN and harmonic complex tones was measured. The pitch onset response (POR) following signal changes from white noise to IRN was measured electrophysiologically. The CI users could discriminate different numbers of iteration in IRN signals, but worse than normal-hearing listeners. A POR was measured for both normal-hearing subjects and CI users increasing with the pitch salience of the IRN. This indicates that the POR could serve as an objective measure to monitor progress during audioverbal therapy after CI surgery.


1997 ◽  
Vol 106 (3) ◽  
pp. 220-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xue Zhong Liu ◽  
Valerie E. Newton

Eight patients with Waardenburg's syndrome (WS) with normal hearing and 3 additional patients exhibiting a low-frequency hearing loss were tested for the level of the acoustic distortion product 2f1-f2 by means of the Otodynamics Distortion Product Analyser (ILO92). Wide notches in distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) between 1,000 and 3,000 Hz were found in 7 (12 ears, 87.5%) examined patients with normal audiograms, which was a significantly higher rate than that found in the control group (10%). The 3 patients with low-frequency hearing loss gave a consistent pattern in audiometric configuration shown by both pure tone audiograms and DPOAEs. It is concluded from these initial results that DPOAEs may be a useful approach to identifying subclinical pathologic aberrations in the inner ear in WS patients, and may be a predictor of low-frequency sensorineural hearing loss.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-20
Author(s):  
Suwimol Ruencharoen ◽  
Chanchai Jariengprasert ◽  
Montip Tiensuwan ◽  
Chardpraorn Ngarmukos

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder. Previous studies reported the hearing impairment of diabetes patients as a progressive bilateral symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) of gradual onset which predominantly affected the higher frequencies, and found that diabetic patients had unsatisfactory hearing thresholds than nondiabetics in the same age group. For the use of evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAEs) as a clinical test of hearing, EOAEs are sound which can be recorded in the outer ear canal and give objective information about preneural, mechanical elements of the cochlear function. Objective: To compare the otoacoustic emissions of asymptomatic DM patients with a normal hearing control group. Methods: All subjects received a routine audiologic evaluation which consisted of pure-tone air-bone conduction tests, tympanograms, and stapedius acoustic reflex tests. OAEs were measured in 30 asymptomatic diabetic patients with a mean age of 55.73 years and an age-matched 30 subjects normal hearing control group with a mean age of 50.87 years. Results: The pure-tone thresholds at 3, 4, 6, and 8 kHz; transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) amplitudes at 1, 1.5, 2, and 3 kHz; and the distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) amplitudes at 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, and 6 kHz were significantly different (P < .05) between the asymptomatic and control groups. Conclusions: This study suggested that diabetic patients had a significant hearing impairment. SNHL is gradually progressive and is a common condition in DM patients and their thresholds for hearing are higher at higher frequencies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Martha R. Westman ◽  
Daniel B. Putterman ◽  
Angela C. Garinis ◽  
Lisa L. Hunter ◽  
M. Patrick Feeney

Purpose Individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) are often treated with intravenous (IV) aminoglycoside (AG) antibiotics to manage life-threatening bacterial infections. Preclinical animal data suggest that, in addition to damaging cochlear hair cells, this class of antibiotics may cause cochlear synaptopathy and/or damage to higher auditory structures. The acoustic reflex growth function (ARGF) is a noninvasive, objective measure of neural function in the auditory system. A shallow ARGF (small reflex-induced changes in middle ear function with increasing elicitor level) has been associated with synaptopathy due to noise exposure in rodent and human studies. In this study, the ARGF was obtained in CF patients with normal hearing, some of whom have been treated with IV AGs, and a control group without CF. The hypothesis was that patients with IV-AG exposure would have a shallow ARGF due to cochlear synaptopathy caused by ototoxicity. Method Wideband ARGFs were examined in four groups of normal-hearing participants: a control group of 29 individuals without CF; and in 57 individuals with CF grouped by lifetime IV-AG exposure: 15 participants with no exposure, 21 with low exposure, and 21 with high exposure. Procedures included pure-tone audiometry, clinical immittance, wideband acoustic immittance battery, including ARGFs, and transient evoked otoacoustic emissions. Results CF subjects with normal pure-tone thresholds and either high or low lifetime IV-AG exposure had enhanced ARGFs compared to controls and CF participants without IV-AG exposure. The groups did not differ in transient evoked otoacoustic emission signal-to-noise ratio. Conclusion These results diverge from the shallow ARGF pattern observed in studies of noise-induced cochlear synaptopathy and are suggestive of a central mechanism of auditory dysfunction in patients with AG-induced ototoxicity.


1971 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 767-772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter E. Comalli ◽  
Morton W. Altshuler

A pulsed 1000-Hz pure tone was dichotically presented to 16 Ss in a “lateralization” task under body positions of erect, 30° left and right tilt, and 60° left and right tilt. With the method of limits no significant effect of body tilt on the perception of auditory midline or on the difference limen was found. Significant effects were found for ascending and descending trials on perception of the auditory midline as well as an interaction effect between body positions and left and right ears. The findings were contrasted with those of studies dealing with the effect of body tilt on auditory “localization.”


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina Na ◽  
Sang Hyun Kwak ◽  
Seung Hyun Jang ◽  
Hye Eun Noh ◽  
Jungghi Kim ◽  
...  

To investigate the effect of choline alfoscerate (CA) on hearing amplification in patients with age related hearing loss, we performed a prospective case-control observational study from March 2016 to September 2020. We assessed patients with bilateral word recognition score (WRS) &lt;50% using monosyllabic words. The patients were 65–85 years old, without any history of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, parkinsonism, or depression. After enrollment, all patients started using hearing aids (HA). The CA group received a daily dose of 800 mg CA for 11 months. We performed between-group comparisons of audiological data, including pure tone audiometry, WRS, HA fitting data obtained using real-ear measurement (REM), and the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid benefit scores after treatment. After CA administration, the WRS improved significantly in the CA group (4.2 ± 8.3%), but deteriorated in the control group (−0.6 ± 8.1%, p = 0.035). However, there was no significant between-group difference in the change in pure tone thresholds and aided speech intelligibility index calculated from REM. These findings suggest that the difference in WRS was relevant to central speech understanding rather than peripheral audibility. Therefore, administering oral CA could effectively enrich listening comprehension in older HA users.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document