Relation between Electric-Auditory Brainstem Response (E-ABR), P1Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials (CAEP) and Language Development in Cochlear Implant Recipients

Abstract

Cochlear implants (CIs) are surgically implanted neural prosthetic devices used to treat severe to profound hearing loss. They stimulate the hearing nerve with patterns of electrical currents so that speech and sounds can be perceived by profoundly deaf people. The use of a CI does not restore hearing to a normal level but enables a different course of development of speech and language function, than would have been possible without the CI. Most behavioral examination of language development in children post implantation point to high rate of improvement. Children who are born deaf and who receive an implant before the age of two years acquire an average rate of language acquisition similar to that of normally hearing children. On the other hand, other researchers reported that many children with CIs may never acquire full language capabilities as their normal hearing peers. The need for objective electrophysiological measures with cochlear implant users has increased due to the unexplained variation in patient performance, implantation of children at younger ages, and an increase in programming options.