Behavioral and electrophysiological measures of auditory change detection in children following late cochlear implantation: A preliminary study

Objective: The purpose of the current study was to longitudinally assess the development of automatic sound feature discrimination and compare it to behavioral discrimination in late-implanted cochlear implant users. Methods: Scalp-recorded auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) and behavioral discrimination of frequency, duration and intensity differences within an oddball paradigm using complex stimuli were recorded in three late-implanted cochlear implant subjects beginning on turn-on day. Results: Variable results were obtained in behavioral and AEPs that were consistent with the amount of pre-implant auditory experience each subject had. The best user showed rapid development of neurophysiologic indices of change detection along with improvement in behavioral and real-world auditory skills. In contrast, there were no recordable AEPs in the poorer CI user and there was little change in behavioral outcomes. Conclusion: There is evidence of utilization of usual auditory processing pathways in the AEPs of some children who receive cochlear implants late in their childhood. Some plasticity in the auditory cortical pathways may be present despite prolonged auditory deprivation in school-aged children who are late-implanted cochlear implant recipients.