Chen Joshua Kuang-Chao, Chuang Ann Yi-Chiun, McMahon Catherine, Tung Tao-Hsin, Li Lieber Po-Hung
*Department of Otolaryngology, Cheng Hsin General Hospital; †Faculty of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University; ‡Mackay Memorial Hospital; §Centre for Language Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; and ∥Department of Medical Research and Education, Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
Otol Neurotol. 2014 Sep;35(8):1409-14. doi: 10.1097/MAO.0000000000000407.
Bimodal stimulation (BMS) has been shown to be beneficial for the performance of pitch ranking in postlingually deafened adults. However, the contribution of nonimplanted ears to pitch perception with respect to duration of hearing aid (HAs) use for prelingually cochlear implantees remained unclear. This study aimed to investigate whether experiences/duration of HAs use in the nonimplanted ear improved pitch perception ability in this population of subjects.
Twenty-nine children with congenital/prelingual deafness of profound degree were studied. Test stimuli consisted of 2 sequential piano tones, ranging from C (256 Hz) to B (495 Hz). Children were asked to identify the pitch relationship between the 2 tones (i.e., same, higher, or lower).
Duration of HAs use was the major factor related to the correct rate for pitch perception. Overall correct rate for pitch perception (O) could be best predicted by duration of HAs use (DuA) (O = 0.561XDuA, r = 0. 315, p = 0.002).
Experiences of HAs use appear to improve pitch perception ability in prelingually cochlear implantees. This suggests that incorporation of HAs use early in life and through the postoperative rehabilitation program for prelingually deafened children with cochlear implants would be beneficial, although an association does not guarantee causality. A longitudinal study is needed to show whether improvement of music performance with duration of HAs use in these children is measurable using auditory evoked potentials.
双模式刺激（BMS）已被证明对语后聋成年人的音高排序表现有益。然而，对于语前聋人工耳蜗植入者，未植入耳对音高感知的贡献与助听器（HA）使用时长的关系仍不明确。本研究旨在调查未植入耳的HA使用经历/时长是否能改善该人群的音高感知能力。
对29名先天性/语前聋的重度儿童进行了研究。测试刺激由两个连续的钢琴音调组成，范围从C（256赫兹）到B（495赫兹）。要求儿童识别这两个音调之间的音高关系（即相同、更高或更低）。
HA使用时长是与音高感知正确率相关的主要因素。音高感知的总体正确率（O）可以通过HA使用时长（DuA）得到最佳预测（O = 0.561×DuA，r = 0.315，p = 0.002）。
HA使用经历似乎能改善语前聋人工耳蜗植入者的音高感知能力。这表明，在语前聋儿童人工耳蜗植入术后的康复计划中尽早纳入HA使用将是有益的，尽管存在关联并不意味着存在因果关系。需要进行纵向研究，以确定这些儿童中随着HA使用时长增加音乐表现的改善是否可以通过听觉诱发电位来衡量。
