Forty children (21 males, mean age ± standard deviation (SD): 5.09 ± 3.79
years old) with sensorineural hearing loss who received their first CI in our
hospital from September 2018 to June 2020 were included in this study. These
children were right-handed according to an assessment with the Edinburgh
Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971 (link)). They started to use hearing aids at a mean age of
2.30 ± 1.21 years old, and had used hearing aids with a mean duration of
2.79 ± 3.26 years and for at least 4 h per day in their daily life. These
children had auditory responses to environmental sounds during the initial
period of hearing aid fitting. To confirm the effectiveness of hearing aid
fitting in the daily life, their auditory performance was reexamined by the
Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) and Categories of Auditory
Performance (CAP) at least every 8 months. The MAIS includes 10 questions
reflecting children's confidence in hearing devices, auditory sensitivity and
ability to connect sounds with meaning. The highest score is 40 and indicates
the best performance for meaningful sound use in everyday situations. The CAP is
an eight-score hierarchical scale that evaluates receptive auditory abilities
and ranges from no awareness of environmental sounds (1 score) to telephone use
with a familiar talker (8 scores). When hearing aid outcomes were poor and the
ABR thresholds estimated by the click and 500-Hz tone burst were above 90 dB
nHL, the hearing-impaired child received a CI. Before the CI surgery, the ABR,
40-Hz auditory evoked potential, multi-frequency steady state potential (MFSSP),
distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) and acoustic impedance had been
performed to confirm profound sensorineural hearing loss (hearing threshold ≥90
dB nHL). The 40-Hz auditory evoked potential (Lynn et al., 1984 (link)) and MFSSP (Johnson & Brown,
2005 ) tests were performed for hearing threshold estimation using the
500-Hz tone burst and sinusoidally amplitude modulated tones (1, 2 and 4 kHz),
respectively. Only 24 children finished the pure-tone audiometry and their
unaided pure tone averages (averaged over 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 8 kHz) were
above 90 dB HL. Participants who had a mental disability, intracranial lesions
or head trauma were excluded from this study. Of children in our study, 20 had
IEMs assessed by computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) according to previously published criteria (Sennaroglu & Bajin, 2017 (link)).
Detailed information for all children is provided inTable 1 . All procedures performed in
this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical
standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the
1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical
standards. The protocols and experimental procedures in the present study were
reviewed and approved by the Anhui Provincial Hospital Ethics Committee. Each
participant's guardians provided written informed consent.
years old) with sensorineural hearing loss who received their first CI in our
hospital from September 2018 to June 2020 were included in this study. These
children were right-handed according to an assessment with the Edinburgh
Handedness Inventory (Oldfield, 1971 (link)). They started to use hearing aids at a mean age of
2.30 ± 1.21 years old, and had used hearing aids with a mean duration of
2.79 ± 3.26 years and for at least 4 h per day in their daily life. These
children had auditory responses to environmental sounds during the initial
period of hearing aid fitting. To confirm the effectiveness of hearing aid
fitting in the daily life, their auditory performance was reexamined by the
Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (MAIS) and Categories of Auditory
Performance (CAP) at least every 8 months. The MAIS includes 10 questions
reflecting children's confidence in hearing devices, auditory sensitivity and
ability to connect sounds with meaning. The highest score is 40 and indicates
the best performance for meaningful sound use in everyday situations. The CAP is
an eight-score hierarchical scale that evaluates receptive auditory abilities
and ranges from no awareness of environmental sounds (1 score) to telephone use
with a familiar talker (8 scores). When hearing aid outcomes were poor and the
ABR thresholds estimated by the click and 500-Hz tone burst were above 90 dB
nHL, the hearing-impaired child received a CI. Before the CI surgery, the ABR,
40-Hz auditory evoked potential, multi-frequency steady state potential (MFSSP),
distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) and acoustic impedance had been
performed to confirm profound sensorineural hearing loss (hearing threshold ≥90
dB nHL). The 40-Hz auditory evoked potential (Lynn et al., 1984 (link)) and MFSSP (
2005
500-Hz tone burst and sinusoidally amplitude modulated tones (1, 2 and 4 kHz),
respectively. Only 24 children finished the pure-tone audiometry and their
unaided pure tone averages (averaged over 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 4 and 8 kHz) were
above 90 dB HL. Participants who had a mental disability, intracranial lesions
or head trauma were excluded from this study. Of children in our study, 20 had
IEMs assessed by computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) according to previously published criteria (Sennaroglu & Bajin, 2017 (link)).
Detailed information for all children is provided in
this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical
standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the
1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical
standards. The protocols and experimental procedures in the present study were
reviewed and approved by the Anhui Provincial Hospital Ethics Committee. Each
participant's guardians provided written informed consent.
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