Tone Stokkereit Mattsson1,2, Ola Lind3, Turid Follestad4, Kjell Grøndahl5, Wayne Wilson6, Ståle Nordgård2,7. 1. a Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery , Ålesund Hospital , Ålesund , Norway. 2. b Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science , Norwegian University of Science and Technology , Trondheim , Norway. 3. c Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery , Haukeland University Hospital , Bergen , Norway. 4. d Department of Public Health and General Practice , Norwegian University of Science and Technology , Trondheim , Norway. 5. e Department of Clinical Engineering , Haukeland University Hospital , Bergen , Norway. 6. f School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland , Brisbane , Australia. 7. g Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery , St. Olavs University Hospital , Trondheim , Norway.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The suppression of evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAE) may serve as a clinical tool to evaluate the medial olivocochlear (MOC) reflex, which is thought to aid speech discrimination (particularly in noise) by selectively inhibiting cochlear amplification. The present study aimed to determine if contralateral transient evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) suppression was present in a clinical sample of children with listening difficulties with and without auditory processing disorder (APD). DESIGN: A three-group, repeated measure design was used. STUDY SAMPLE: Forty three children aged 8-14 years underwent an auditory processing assessment and were divided into three groups: children with reported listening difficulties with APD, children with reported listening difficulties without APD, and children with normal hearing. APD was defined as per British Society of Audiology. RESULTS: TEOAE suppression was present in all three participant groups. No significant group, age or ear effects were observed for TEOAE suppression in dB or as a normalised index. CONCLUSION: Contralateral TEOAE suppression method could not be used as a clinical tool to identify APD in this study's participating children and did not support the hypothesised link between reduced MOC function and general listening difficulties in background noise in children with or without APD.
OBJECTIVE: The suppression of evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAE) may serve as a clinical tool to evaluate the medial olivocochlear (MOC) reflex, which is thought to aid speech discrimination (particularly in noise) by selectively inhibiting cochlear amplification. The present study aimed to determine if contralateral transient evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) suppression was present in a clinical sample of children with listening difficulties with and without auditory processing disorder (APD). DESIGN: A three-group, repeated measure design was used. STUDY SAMPLE: Forty three children aged 8-14 years underwent an auditory processing assessment and were divided into three groups: children with reported listening difficulties with APD, children with reported listening difficulties without APD, and children with normal hearing. APD was defined as per British Society of Audiology. RESULTS: TEOAE suppression was present in all three participant groups. No significant group, age or ear effects were observed for TEOAE suppression in dB or as a normalised index. CONCLUSION: Contralateral TEOAE suppression method could not be used as a clinical tool to identify APD in this study's participating children and did not support the hypothesised link between reduced MOC function and general listening difficulties in background noise in children with or without APD.