Boboshko Maria Y, Savenko Irina V, Garbaruk Ekaterina S, Knyazeva Veronika M, Vasilyeva Marina J
Department of Higher Nervous Activity and Psychophysiology, St. Petersburg State University, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia.
Laboratory of Hearing and Speech, Pavlov First St. Petersburg State Medical University, 197022 St. Petersburg, Russia.
Pathophysiology. 2023 Oct 27;30(4):505-521. doi: 10.3390/pathophysiology30040038.
Prematurity is one of the most crucial risk factors negatively affecting the maturation of the auditory system. Children born preterm demonstrate high rates of hearing impairments. Auditory processing difficulties in preterm children might be a result of disturbances in the central auditory system development and/or sensory deprivation due to peripheral hearing loss. To investigate auditory processing in preterm children, we utilized a set of psychoacoustic tests to assess temporal processing and speech intelligibility. A total of 241 children aged 6-11 years old (136 born preterm and 105 healthy full-term children forming the control group) were assessed. The preterm children were divided into three groups based on their peripheral hearing status: 74 normal hearing (NH group); 30 children with bilateral permanent sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL group) and 32 children with bilateral auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD group). The results showed significantly worse performance in all tests in premature children compared with full-term children. NH and SNHL groups showed significant age-related improvement in speech recognition thresholds in noise that might signify a "bottom-up" auditory processing maturation effect. Overall, all premature children had signs of auditory processing disorders of varying degrees. Analyzing and understanding the auditory processing specificity in preterm children can positively contribute to the more effective implementation of rehabilitation programs.
早产是对听觉系统成熟产生负面影响的最关键风险因素之一。早产出生的儿童听力障碍发生率很高。早产儿童的听觉处理困难可能是由于中枢听觉系统发育紊乱和/或外周听力损失导致的感觉剥夺所致。为了研究早产儿童的听觉处理能力，我们采用了一系列心理声学测试来评估时间处理能力和言语可懂度。共评估了241名6至11岁的儿童（136名早产出生儿童和105名健康足月儿童作为对照组）。根据外周听力状况，将早产儿童分为三组：74名听力正常（NH组）；30名双侧永久性感音神经性听力损失儿童（SNHL组）和32名双侧听觉神经病谱系障碍儿童（ANSD组）。结果显示，与足月儿童相比，早产儿童在所有测试中的表现明显更差。NH组和SNHL组在噪声中的言语识别阈值显示出与年龄相关的显著改善，这可能表明存在“自下而上”的听觉处理成熟效应。总体而言，所有早产儿童都有不同程度的听觉处理障碍迹象。分析和了解早产儿童的听觉处理特异性有助于更有效地实施康复计划。
