Neural coding of different speech sounds in infants with congenital cytomegalovirus and normal hearing adults
Hearing; Electrophysiology; Speech; Cytomegalovirus
Introduction: Frequency Following Response (FFR) reflects synchronized patterns of neural activity in the auditory pathway covering the subcortical and cortical regions in response to speech sounds. Objectives: Study 1 - To compare the neural pattern of speech decoding in normal-hearing adults for different acoustic stimuli. Study 2 - To investigate the influence of congenital Cytomegalovirus on the neural response to different speech stimuli in infants. Method: These are cross-sectional, prospective and observational studies. In study 1, the investigation is carried out in normal-hearing adults without hearing complaints and study 2 in infants with congenital cytomegalovirus compared to a control group. In the study of adults, all had Transient Otoacoustic Emissions present and in the infants all will undergo pediatric audiological evaluation, through the Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential with specific frequency and click, Transient Otoacoustic Emissions. Both studies are using Frequency Following Response as a research instrument. The protocol is presenting the 170-millisecond speech stimulus /da/ in the right ear in both studies and the stimulus /dao/ in both ears, monaurally and binaurally in study 1 and monaurally in the right ear in study 2. Partial results: Study 1 - sample consisting of 25 normal-hearing adults, 7 males and 18 females. Data are being analyzed. Study 2 has not yet been able to start data collection because it is awaiting the purchase of supplies and the final process by the Research Ethics Committee. Expected results: We expect to verify whether there are differences between the types of stimuli /da/ and /dao/ in normal-hearing adults and in control infants, as well as to identify whether there is any influence of the presence of congenital cytomegalovirus on the neural coding of speech stimuli in infants.