2019 Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses

14-19 July 2019

Granlibakken, Lake Tahoe

Page 75

P48: CHILDREN WITH IMPAIRED BINAURAL HEARING HAVE WORKING MEMORY,

LEARNING AND NAVIGATION DEFICITS: EVIDENCE FROM GROUPS WITH BILATERAL

COCHLEAR IMPLANTS AND UNTREATED SINGLE-SIDED DEAFNESS

Claire McSweeny, Sharon L. Cushing, Jennifer Campos,

Blake C. Papsin, Karen A. Gordon

Archie’s Cochlear Implant Laboratory, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, CAN

Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, CAN

Objectives: (1) To identify deficits in spatial perception, working memory, awareness, and

academics in children with hearing loss, and (2) To determine relationships between these

functional abilities.

Background: Binaural/spatial hearing is impaired in children with hearing loss. Binaural cues are

unavailable to children with untreated single-sided deafness (SSD) and are

inaccurate/inconsistent in children using bilateral cochlear implants (BCIs). Hearing loss also

negatively affects cognitive processes, which could appear as working memory and learning

deficits in these groups of children.

Methods: A battery of functional measures were completed in 32 children who received BCIs

simultaneously (mean age (SD)=8.94(2.88) years), and 20 children with untreated SSD (mean

age(SD)=10.73(4.17) years). Results were compared to 36 children with normal hearing (mean

age(SD)=10.03(3.25) years). The test battery focused on hearing ability (PBK speech

perception test, Speech and Spatial Qualities of hearing questionnaire-SSQ), spatial perception

(subjective visual vertical), spatial navigation (triangle completion task), verbal working memory

(digit span), spatial working memory (Corsi block tapping test, dot matrix test), academics

(WIAT-III sub-tests) and language (CELF). Hypotheses were tested using principal components

analyses of these measures.

Results: Principal components analyses identified 4 main clusters of data across the 3 groups:

PC1: memory and learning; PC2: self-perceived hearing ability; PC3: hearing and spatial

navigation; PC4: balance and spatial navigation. ANOVAs to assess group differences,

accounting for age, revealed that children with BCIs had significantly lower memory/learning

(PC1) and self-perceived hearing (PC2) than the other 2 groups (p<0.05). Children with SSD

also showed impaired memory/learning (PC1) compared to normal hearing peers (p=0.005) and

had more challenges with their hearing, balance and spatial navigation (PC3 and PC4)

compared to the other groups (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Despite good self-perceived hearing, children with untreated SSD exhibit cognitive

and learning deficits and poor balance and spatial navigation. Providing children with BCIs does

not entirely remediate cognitive deficits that result from periods of auditory deprivation in

development but may provide improvement in balance relative to untreated SSD to support

spatial navigation. Together, the findings reiterate the importance of providing children with

binaural input as early as possible.