Tharpe Anne Marie, Bess Fred H, Sladen Douglas P, Schissel Holly, Couch Steve, Schery Teris
Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center for Otolaryngology and Communication Sciences, Vanderbilt Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Ear Hear. 2006 Aug;27(4):430-41. doi: 10.1097/01.aud.0000224981.60575.d8.
The objectives of this study were (1) to describe the auditory characteristics of children with autism relative to those of typically developing children and (2) to describe the test-retest reliability of behavioral auditory test measures with this population of children with autism.
Audiometric data were obtained from 22 children diagnosed with autism and 22 of their typically developing peers. The audiologic test battery consisted of behavioral measures (i.e., visual reinforcement audiometry, tangible reinforcement operant conditioning audiometry, and conditioned play audiometry) and physiological measures (auditory brain stem response audiometry, distortion product otoacoustic emissions, and acoustic reflexes).
Children with autism had physiologic test results equivalent to their typically developing counterparts. That is, no differences in auditory brain stem response audiometry, distortion product otoacoustic emissions, or acoustic reflex results were noted between the children with autism and typically developing children. However, behavioral measures revealed that about half of the children diagnosed with autism presented pure-tone averages outside of normal limits (i.e., >20 dB HL), although their response thresholds to speech were within normal limits. All behavioral test results were within normal limits (i.e., </=20 dB HL) for the typically developing children. In addition, test-retest variability was typically 15 dB or greater for children with autism as compared with variability of 10 dB or less for most of the typically developing children.
Children with autism demonstrated essentially equivalent results on a battery of physiological auditory tests as those obtained from typically developing children. However, on average, behavioral responses of children with autism were elevated and less reliable relative to those of typically developing children. Furthermore, approximately half of the children with autism demonstrated behavioral pure-tone averages outside of the normal hearing range (i.e., >20 dB HL) despite having normal to near-normal hearing sensitivity as determined by other audiometric measures.
本研究的目的是（1）描述自闭症儿童相对于正常发育儿童的听觉特征，以及（2）描述针对自闭症儿童群体的行为听觉测试指标的重测信度。
从22名被诊断为自闭症的儿童及其22名正常发育的同龄人那里获取听力测定数据。听力测试组合包括行为测量（即视觉强化测听、实物强化操作性条件测听和条件性游戏测听）和生理测量（听觉脑干反应测听、畸变产物耳声发射和听觉反射）。
自闭症儿童的生理测试结果与正常发育儿童相当。也就是说，自闭症儿童和正常发育儿童在听觉脑干反应测听、畸变产物耳声发射或听觉反射结果方面没有差异。然而，行为测量结果显示，约一半被诊断为自闭症的儿童纯音平均听阈超出正常范围（即>20 dB HL），尽管他们对言语的反应阈值在正常范围内。所有正常发育儿童的行为测试结果均在正常范围内（即≤20 dB HL）。此外，自闭症儿童的重测变异性通常为15 dB或更大，而大多数正常发育儿童的变异性为10 dB或更小。
自闭症儿童在一系列生理听觉测试中的结果与正常发育儿童基本相当。然而，平均而言，自闭症儿童的行为反应相对于正常发育儿童有所提高且可靠性较低。此外，尽管通过其他听力测量方法确定约一半自闭症儿童的听力敏感度正常或接近正常，但他们的行为纯音平均听阈超出了正常听力范围（即>20 dB HL）。
