The development of hearing in prelingually deaf children with white matter changes in the first year after cochlear implantation

Abstract

Background: The development of hearing and plasticity of brain after cochlear implantation (CI) for prelingually deaf children with white matter changes (group A) is unclear.

Objective: To investigate the development of hearing for children in group A during 1 year after CI activation, compared with non-complicated peers (group B).

Materials and methods: Twenty-one and 22 children (average age is about 5 years old) were included in groups A and B, respectively. Questionnaires were used to assess the hearing ability at pre-CI, 1, 6 and 12 months after CI activation (called Mpre, M1, M6, M12 for short). In addition, MMRs to pure tones were investigated at the same three time points after CI.

Results: There is no significant difference in scores on questionnaires, MMR incidence, latency or amplitude between children in two groups. Scores on questionnaires showed a significant progressive improvement in two groups during the first year after CI. Furthermore, MMR incidence at M6 was significantly higher than that at M1, and MMR latency at M12 was significantly shorter than that at M1.

Conclusions and significance: Prelingually deaf children with white matter changes achieved rapid development and comparable outcomes with CI peers over the first year after CI.

Chinese abstract

背景：对于有白质改变的语前耳聋儿童（A组）, 人工耳蜗植入（CI）后听力和脑可塑性的发展尚不清楚。

目的：探讨A组儿童在CI激活后1年内听力的发展情况, 并与无患同龄人（B组）进行比较。

材料与方法：A组21例, B组22例（平均5岁左右）。采用问卷调查的方法对CI前、CI激活后1、6、12个月（简称Mpre、M1、M6、M12）的听力进行评估。此外, 还研究了CI后同样三个时间点对纯音的MMRs。

结果：两组儿童在问卷得分、MMR发生率、潜伏期和波幅上无显著性差异。在CI后的第一年, 两组的问卷得分都有显著的进步。此外, M6的MMR发生率显著高于M1, M12的MMR潜伏期显著短于M1。

结论与意义：语前耳聋儿童白质改变在CI后1年内发展迅速, 也取得了与CI同龄人可比的结果。

Keywords:

• Cochlear implantation
• children
• white matter changes
• mismatch response
• pure tone
• hearing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

This work was supported by General Programs funded in China-Japan Friendship Hospital [2015-1-MS-5]; Beijing Natural Science Foundation of China [7172251]; National key research and developement project [2018YFC2002600]; The capital health research and development of special [2016-1-5014]; Projects funded in China Rehabilitation Research Center for Hearing and Speech Impairment [201404].

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by General Programs funded in China-Japan Friendship Hospital [2015-1-MS-5]; Beijing Natural Science Foundation of China [7172251]; National key research and developement project [2018YFC2002600]; The capital health research and development of special [2016-1-5014]; Projects funded in China Rehabilitation Research Center for Hearing and Speech Impairment [201404].