STUDY ON FUNCTIONING OF EFFERENT AUDITORY PATHWAY IN MENTALLY CHALLENGED

Abstract

Objective:

The main objective of the study is to compare the amount of suppression of TEOAE’s with contralateral stimulation in mentally challenged children and age matched normal children and further to study the functioning of the efferent auditory pathway in children with delayed maturation of the auditory pathway especially in individuals with non-Down’s syndrome..

Material and methods:

The present study was aimed at investigating the contralateral suppression of Transient Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (TEOAEs) in normal children as compared with that of developmentally delayed. 15 mentally challenged children in the age range of 7-12 years and gender matched normal children participated in the study.

Results:

Results suggest reduced contralateral suppression of TEOAEs in mentally challenged children as compared to their normal counterparts. Contralateral suppression was observed at more in left ear compared to right ear. The mid frequencies were observed to have greater suppression in both ears.

Conclusion:

The results of the current study reinforces the contention that contralateral suppression of TEOAEs is reduced in children with delayed maturation and provides insight for confirming the risk of auditory processing difficulties and speech perception in noise. The association between contralateral acoustic stimulation and OAE allows easy, non-invasive study of auditory efferent mechanisms and seems to be clinically feasible for evaluating cochlear status and auditory efferent function.

Keywords: efferent auditory pathway, mentally challenged, otoacoustic emissions