Sachchidanand Sinha¹*, Aakanksha² and Mangal Chandra Yadav³

¹Speech Pathologist/Audiologist Gr 1, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Medical College, Raipur, India
²Audiometry Technician, Northern Coal Field Limited, Singrauli, India
³Audiologist, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Rishikesh, India

*Corresponding Author: Sachchidanand Sinha, Speech Pathologist/Audiologist Gr 1, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial Medical College, Raipur, India.

Received: July 15, 2023; Published: November 20, 2023

Abstract

Central auditory processing is the processing of complex sounds after the initiation of transduction of sound energy via external ear into neural activity of the cochlea. Disruption of central auditory processing may lead to deficit in perception of speech, environmental sound or music in the absence of peripheral hearing loss. The present study was carried out to assess the coding of fundamental frequency and different harmonics using speech evoked auditory brainstem responses. Thirty children at risk of central auditory processing deficit were compared with age matched typically developing children in the age range of 8-14 years. The responses were analyzed offline using Fast Fourier Transform with the help of MATLab (version 7.0) software. Statistical analysis was done using ANOVA. The result revealed no significant differences between ear and hence both ears data were combined. Further results showed there was no significant main effect for fundamental frequency (F0) [F(1, 118) = 0.122; p = 0.727], whereas statistically significant main effect observed for second harmonics (H2) [F(1, 118) = 14.494; p = 0.000], third harmonics (H3) [F(1, 118) = 4.822; p = 0.029] and fourth harmonics (H4) [F(1, 118) = 7.332; p = 0.008]. These findings suggest that probably their pitch encoding is intact whereas the harmonics are compromised. The differences between two groups in terms of harmonics was attributed to brainstem timing deficit in children at risk of central auditory processing disorder in comparison to typically developing children.

Keywords: Pitch Encoding; Speech Evoked ABR; CAPD; Fundamental Frequency

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Citation

Citation: Sachchidanand Sinha., et al