Department of Otolaryngology, University of Rochester Medical Center, 601 Elmwood Avenue, Box 629, Rochester, NY, 14642, USA.
Department of Otolaryngology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Virginia, USA.
J Assoc Res Otolaryngol. 2022 Dec;23(6):751-758. doi: 10.1007/s10162-022-00871-1. Epub 2022 Oct 24.
Children with a history of temporary conductive hearing loss (CHL) during early development may show long-term impairments in auditory processes that persist after restoration of normal audiometric hearing thresholds. Tones in noise provide a simplified paradigm for studying hearing in noise. Prior research has shown that adults with sensorineural hearing loss may alter their listening strategy to use single-channel energy cues for tone-in-noise (TIN) detection rather than rove-resistant envelope or spectral profile cues. Our objective was to determine the effect of early CHL on TIN detection in healthy children compared to controls. Children ages 4-7 years, with and without a history of CHL due to otitis media with effusion (OME) before age 3 years, participated in a two-alternative forced choice TIN detection task. Audiometric thresholds were normal at the time of testing. Thresholds for detection of a 1000 Hz tone were measured in fixed-level noise and in roving-level noise that made single-channel energy cues unreliable. Participants included 23 controls and 23 with a history of OME-related CHL. TIN thresholds decreased with increasing age across participants. Children in both groups showed similar TIN sensitivity and little or no threshold elevation in the roving-level condition compared to fixed-level tracks, consistent with use of rove-resistant cues. In contrast to older listeners with sensorineural hearing loss, there was no detectable change in TIN sensitivity with roving level for children with a history of OME-related CHL.
在早期发育过程中曾有过短暂传导性听力损失（CHL）病史的儿童，即使在听力阈值恢复正常后，其听觉过程也可能会长期受损。噪声中的音调为研究噪声中的听力提供了一个简化的范例。先前的研究表明，患有感音神经性听力损失的成年人可能会改变他们的听力策略，转而使用单通道能量线索来检测噪声中的音调（TIN），而不是抗漂移的包络或频谱轮廓线索。我们的目的是确定与对照组相比，早期 CHL 对健康儿童 TIN 检测的影响。年龄在 4-7 岁之间的儿童，无论是否有因中耳积液（OME）引起的 CHL 病史，均参与了二选一强制选择 TIN 检测任务。在测试时，听力阈值正常。在固定水平噪声和单通道能量线索不可靠的波动水平噪声中测量了 1000Hz 音调的检测阈值。参与者包括 23 名对照组和 23 名有 OME 相关 CHL 病史的儿童。TIN 阈值随参与者年龄的增长而降低。与固定水平的轨迹相比，两组儿童的 TIN 敏感性相似，或在波动水平条件下的阈值升高很小，这与使用抗漂移线索一致。与患有感音神经性听力损失的老年听众不同，对于有 OME 相关 CHL 病史的儿童，TIN 敏感性没有随波动水平而发生可检测的变化。
