Auditory evoked cortical potentials with competing noise in children with auditory figure ground deficit

Abstract

Objective: Listening in real life with noise competition is a great challenge for a considerable number of schoolchildren with auditory processing disorders. These children usually have difficulty in auditory figure ground (AFG) ability. Diagnosis and follow-up of those children is mainly conducted using psychophysical tests that may not be sufficient considering the possible learning effect of these tests or the testing difficulties at a young age. The aim of this study was to investigate a proposed objective tool for the diagnosis of an AFG deficit. Method: The cortical P1-N1 complex with and without ipsilateral competing noise (ICN) was measured for 15 schoolchildren demonstrating an AFG deficit psychophysically. The study group's results were compared to those of 15 age-matched children with normal peripheral and central hearing who comprised the control group (I), and eight age-matched children demonstrating auditory processing disorder(s) but not including an AFG deficit, as a further control group (II). Results: The P1-N1 complex was reproducible in all groups with distortion of the morphology and depression of the amplitude when recorded with an ICN. The impact of an ICN was significantly more pronounced on the study group’s recordings than those of the other groups. All cortical measurements were sensitive to diagnose an AFG deficit, while only the threshold of the P1-N1 complex in ICN was specific to it. Conclusion: The P1-N1 complex threshold with an ICN is a useful tool to diagnose an AFG deficit. It can be considered a physiological correlate of the psychophysical SPIN test.

Key words::

• auditory-evoked cortical potentials
• auditory figure ground
• auditory processing
• speech in noise

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.