Effect Of Sensorineural Hearing Loss On Speech Evoked Auditory Cortical Potentials

Auditory cortical potentials/Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials (CEAPs) have been a part of clinical practice for over half a century. Detailed investigations have clearly elucidate their application in breath of diagnostic audiology and neuro-otology. Peripheral hearing loss is the most common disorder affecting the auditory system across ages and induces number of changes in the information processing throughout the higher order pathways. The current study explored the cortical modulation of auditory evoked potentials in individuals with peripheral hearing loss using CEAPs. The study, explore this using two different listening paradigms (equal HL and equal SL) and two different category of stimuli (voiced and unvoiced). The results of the recorded CEAPs recorded using two different paradigms revels that, the response characteristics changes quite drastically between equal HL and SL paradigms. These probably reflect the different underlying neural processing mechanism in individuals with hearing impairment, which are discussed in detail. Further, the role of stimulus complexity in evoking CEAPs is also discussed. Finally, the possibly role of CEAP as a marker for hearing loss is discussed.