Abstract:
This study aimed to explore the latency and amplitude of the cortical auditory-evoked potentials (CAEPs) in early and late cochlear implant (CI) recipients. Further, the relationship between the duration of deafness and implant age was also compared with CAEP measures. The study included 20 unilateral CI recipients, who underwent CI surgery under government schemes. Out of 20 CI children, 10 children in each group who received implantation before and after 3.5 years of age were considered as early and late implanted children respectively. CAEPs were recorded using 4-channel AEP equipment in oddball paradigm (frequent-/da/ & infrequent-/ga/) speech stimuli. The Shapiro-Wilk test showed a normal distribution of the data and hence parametric test was performed. The MANOVA showed a significant difference in P1 latency between early and late CI children. The other peaks of the CAEPs (Latency of N1 & P2; the peak-to-peak amplitude of P1N1 & N1P2) did not show significant differences between early and late CI users. The Pearson correlation coefficient showed a positive relationship between P1 latency and implant age as well as between duration of deafness and P1 latency for early CI children. The present study showed the significance of P1 of CAEPs as a biomarker for measuring the development of central auditory pathways among CI recipients. The gradual reduction in P1 wave latency indicates enhanced sound transmission efficiency in the auditory cortex. The CAEP is a good tool to measure auditory development at the cortical level among CI children.
