AUDITORY ASSESSMENT WITH AEPS IN CHILDREN

本次调查的总体目标是提高对本病的诊断 幼儿听力损失和中枢性听力障碍。它的用途 某些听觉诱发电位(AEP)，包括中潜伏期 (MLR)和晚电位在儿科人群中的应用有限 由于这些反应在睡眠或睡眠期间的可变性 对行为任务的反应的依赖性可能超出 幼儿的能力。这个项目是对 儿童中的MLR和失配负波(MMN)AEP，并解决如何 这些限制可能会被克服。 第一个主要目标是开发一种方法来识别 有利于记录MLR的睡眠。之前的研究已经 表明某些睡眠阶段比其他阶段更有利， 可以通过分析特定的脑电信号来区分它们 幅值和频率特性。建议进行一项调查 “三角洲比率”的效用，这是一种衡量三角洲优势的指标。 脑电波活动。增量存在/不存在的在线检测可以 当孩子处于良好的MLR时，向临床医生或研究人员发出信号 录制时间段。类似的措施最终可能适用于其他 AEP。 第二个主要目标是描述响应于明确定义的MMN 以确定该反应是否能提供客观 学龄儿童听觉辨别的神经生理学测量 孩子们。MMN反映了小声的中枢听觉加工。 这种差异并不依赖于儿童的积极参与。 MMN将由以下不同的合成语音刺激引起 对语音感知至关重要的声学参数。另一个 目的是确定MLR和MLR的发育变化 MMN与已确定的发育行为指标相关 通过标准化的智力测量和潜在的过程 学习和学术成就。该系统的临床适用性 电生理/行为结合方法将在(1)中进行评估 有行为识别的中枢性听觉缺陷的儿童和(2) 注意缺陷多动障碍儿童--一组 其中听觉加工缺陷的并存是很好的 已经成立了。

The overall goal of this investigation is to improve the diagnosis of hearing loss and central auditory deficits in young children. The use of certain auditory evoked potentials (AEPs), including middle latency (MLR) and late potentials, has been limited in pediatric populations because of the variability of these responses during sleep or the dependence of the responses on a behavioral task which may be beyond the capabilities of a young child. This project is an investigation of the MLR and mismatch negativity (MMN) AEPs in children and addresses how these limitations may be overcome. The first major aim is to develop a means to identify the periods during sleep that are favorable for recording the MLR. Previous research has indicated that certain sleep stages are more favorable than others and that they may be distinguished by analyzing the EEG for specific amplitude and frequency characteristics. Proposed is an investigation of the utility of the "delta ratio", a measure of the dominance of delta activity in the EEG. On-line detection of delta presence/absence could signal a clinician or researcher when a child is in a favorable MLR recording period. Similar measures could eventually be applied to other AEPs. A second major aim is to characterize the MMN in response to well-defined speech stimuli to determine if this response can provide an objective neurophysiologic measure of auditory discrimination in school-aged children. The MMN reflects central auditory processing of small acoustic differences and does not depend on active participation from the child. The MMN will be elicited by synthesized speech stimuli that differ in acoustic parameters that are fundamental to speech perception. Another objective is to determine whether developmental changes in the MLR and the MMN correlate with behavioral measures of development as determined by standardized measures of mental aptitude and processes underlying learning and academic achievement. Clinical applicability of the combined electrophysiologic/behavioral approach will be evaluated in (1) children with behaviorally identified central auditory deficits and (2) children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder -- a group in which the co-existence of auditory processing deficits is well established.