Objetivo Realizar uma análise descritiva do desempenho de pacientes encaminhados a um hospital de uma instituição de ensino público, para avaliação do processamento auditivo, e correlacionar os achados desta avaliação à idade, queixas, resultados e às avaliações auditivas comportamental e eletrofisiológica.Métodos O estudo incluiu 159 indivíduos encaminhados pelo sistema público de saúde para avaliação do processamento auditivo. Todos os participantes realizaram audiometria tonal liminar, medidas de imitância acústica, testes comportamentais do processamento auditivo e avaliação eletrofisiológica da audição.Resultados A principal queixa referida foi a de dificuldade de aprendizagem e os testes que avaliam processamento temporal e escuta dicótica foram os que apresentaram maior prevalência de alteração. Em todos os testes eletrofisiológicos, o número de resultados normais foi superior aos alterados. A proporção de indivíduos normais e alterados, nos testes comportamentais e eletrofisiológicos, não diferiu em relação ao gênero. Houve correlação fraca entre fechamento auditivo e potencial evocado auditivo de média latência da orelha direita; potencial evocado auditivo de média latência da orelha esquerda e potencial evocado auditivo de média latência total; ordenação temporal e efeito eletrodo direito e P300; processamento temporal e potencial evocado auditivo de média latência da orelha direita; escuta dicótica e P300 e entre interação binaural e reflexo acústico das orelhas direita e esquerda.Conclusão A dificuldade de aprendizagem prevaleceu sobre as queixas dos participantes e as habilidades de processamento temporal e escuta dicótica apresentaram maior prevalência de alteração. A maioria dos participantes foi encaminhada para a avaliação do processamento auditivo pelo fonoaudiólogo. Os testes eletrofisiológicos apresentaram correlação fraca com os testes comportamentais.

Congenital toxoplasmosis is an infectious disease with high prevalence in tropical countries. It is characterized by neurological, ophthalmological and auditory sequelae. The aim of this study was to evaluate and describe the brainstem auditory evoked potential in infants aged 1-3 months diagnosed with congenital toxoplasmosis and to compare them with infants of the same age group without the infection. This is an observational, analytical and cross-sectional study in which brainstem auditory evoked potential was investigated in infants with congenital toxoplasmosis. The following audiological exams were performed: transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions, clinical and automatic brainstem auditory evoked potential. 100 children participated in the study, but the final sample consisted of 76 children. Of the 37 children with toxoplasmosis included in the study, 28 completed the neurological imaging evaluation, and of these, 3 (10.7%) showed an altered neurological examination. At the brainstem auditory evoked potential assessment, two children without toxoplasmosis and 10 children with congenital toxoplasmosis had results suggestive of alterations in the brainstem auditory pathway maturation. 10 (27%) children were identified with a possible unilateral alteration in the electrophysiological assessment. There was a 5-fold higher risk for a child between 1 and 3 months of age with toxoplasmosis to have an altered brainstem auditory evoked potential compared to a child of the same age range without the infection.

Damage to cochlear outer hair cells (OHCs) usually affects frequency selectivity in proportion to hearing threshold increase. However, the current clinical heuristics that attributes poor hearing performance despite near-normal auditory sensitivity to auditory neuropathy or “hidden” synaptopathy overlooks possible underlying OHC impairment. Here, we document the part played by OHCs in influencing suprathreshold auditory performance in the presence of noise in a mouse model of progressive hair cell degeneration, the CD1 strain, at postnatal day 18–30 stages when high-frequency auditory thresholds remained near-normal. Nonetheless, total loss of high-frequency distortion product otoacoustic emissions pointed to nonfunctioning basal OHCs. This “discordant profile” came with a huge low-frequency shift of masking tuning curves that plot the level of interfering sound necessary to mask the response to a probe tone, against interfering frequency. Histology revealed intense OHC hair bundle abnormalities in the basal cochlea uncharacteristically associated with OHC survival and preserved coupling with the tectorial membrane. This pattern dismisses the superficial diagnosis of “hidden” neuropathy while underpinning a disorganization of cochlear frequency mapping with optimistic high-frequency auditory thresholds perhaps because responses to high frequencies are apically shifted. The audiometric advantage of frequency transposition is offset by enhanced masking by low-frequency sounds, a finding essential for guiding rehabilitation.

Vestibular Myogenic Evoked Potential (VEMP) evaluates vestibulo-ocular and vestibulo-collic reflexes involved in the function of the otolithic organs and their afferent pathways. We compared the results of cervical and ocular VEMP in HTLV-1 associated myelopathy (HAM) and HTLV-1-asymptomatic infection. This cross-sectional study included 52 HTLV-1-infected individuals (26 HAM and 26 asymptomatic carriers) and 26 seronegative controls. The groups were similar regarding age and gender. Participants underwent simultaneous ocular and cervical VEMP. The stimulus to generate VEMP was a low-frequency tone burst sound tone burst, with an intensity of 120 decibels normalized hearing level, bandpass filter from 10 to 1,500 Hertz (Hz), with 100 stimuli at 500 Hz and 50 milliseconds recording time. The latencies of the electrophysiological waves P13 and N23 for cervical VEMP and N10 and P15 waves for ocular VEMP were compared among the groups. The absence or delay of the electrophysiological waves were considered abnormal results. Ocular VEMP was similar among the groups for N10 (p = 0.375) and different for P15 (p≤0.001). Cervical VEMP was different for P13 (p = 0.001) and N23 (p = 0.003). About ocular VEMP, in the HTLV-1-asymptomatic group, normal waves were found in 23(88.5%) individuals; in HAM group, normal waves were found in 7(26.9%). About cervical VEMP, 18(69.2%) asymptomatic carriers presented normal waves and only 3(11.5%) patients with HAM presented normal waves. Abnormalities in both VEMPs were found in 1(3.8%) asymptomatic carrier and in 16(61.5%) patients with HAM. Neurological impairment in HAM was not restricted to the spinal cord. The mesencephalic connections, tested by ocular VEMP, have been also altered. Damage of the oculomotor system, responsible for eye stabilization during head and body movements, may explain why dizziness is such a frequent complaint in HAM.

Objective: to describe the findings of the auditory processing behavioral tests in patients with hearing loss before and after hearing aid fitting associated with auditory training. Methods: a descriptive analytical study that compared the findings of the auditory processing evaluation in 22 patients, from 19 to 62 years old, with mild or moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Tests used: Sound localization; Masking Level Difference; Alternate Disyllables Dichotic Listening Test; Melodic Frequency Pattern Test, Melodic Duration Pattern Test; Gaps in Noise; Speech in Noise Test. After the first tests, the patients were fitted with hearing aids and underwent eight auditory training sessions. The tests were retaken after a two-month period. Results: there was a predominance of females and a moderate degree hearing loss. In the comparison of the initial and final assessment situations, a statistically significant difference (p <0.05) was seen in all conditions studied, except for the Gaps in Noise and Masking Level Difference tests. Conclusion: the results have proven that the auditory training performed in adult users of hearing aids brought about significant improvements on the auditory processing skills, thus, modifying their auditory behavior. The improvement of the results of the auditory processing behavioral tests in the initial and final situations reflects the hearing functional improvement achieved.

Introduction The use of functional near-infrared light spectroscopy (fNIRS) may be applied to study cortical responses in children and could offer insight into auditory and speech perception during the early stages of life. Some literature suggests that babies are already able to identify familiar voices at birth, and fNIRS is a non-invasive technique that can be used to study this population. Objective To characterize the cortical responses of infants during their first trimester of life to infant-directed speech using near-infrared light spectroscopy and to verify whether there is a difference in responses when infant-directed speech is performed by their mother compared with an unknown person. Methods Twenty-three children between 0 and 3 months, healthy, without risk indicators for hearing loss, and with results considered normal in the audiological evaluation were tested with near-infrared spectroscopy using infant-directed speech as an auditory stimulus produced by their own mother and by an unknown source. Results Bilateral cortical activation was observed. The responses were present in the temporal, frontal, and parietal regions. Regarding the familiarity aspect, no significant difference was observed for the mother's voice compared with an unknown voice. Conclusion Infant-directed speech has prosodic characteristics capable of activating several cortical regions in the infant's first trimester of life, especially the temporal region. The familiarity effect needs to be better defined for this type of stimulus during this period.