Does migraine affect central auditory processing abilities?

OBJECTIVE: Migraine is a neurological disease associated with an altered cortical excitability level. Several studies have investigated the relationship between migraine and central auditory processing (CAP), with deficits in CAP being common among migraine patients. However, studies on the factors affecting these CAP changes observed in migraine patients are still few and controversial. This study aims to investigate CAP changes in migraine patients with Duration Pattern Test (DPT) and Frequency Pattern Test (FPT), which have not been used in previous studies. METHODS: Sixty subjects were divided into two groups and one migraine subgroup: control group, twenty normal healthy subjects, fourty subjects diagnosed with migraine. They were evaluated using the CAP test including DPT and FPT. To identify the variables and possible effects of the variables, a questionnaire describing the characteristics of migraine features was administered to participants with migraine. RESULTS: No significant difference was found the between the control and study group in CAP tests scores. No significant correlation was found between migraine characteristics and CAP tests scores. Males had significantly higher FPT scores in both ears than females (p<0.05). Significant statistical negative correlation was found between age and FPT scores for both ears and left DPT scores (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Although migraine patients generally showed lower CAP ability than the control group, no significant difference was observed between them. This was also valid for subgroups of migraine. However, as age increased in the migraine group, a significant decrease in CAP performance was observed. It was observed that male migraine patients had better CAP ability, especially FPT scores. Migraine may affect performance in CAP depending on gender and age factors.

Effects of Cognitive Functions on Speech Recognition in Noise in Cochlear Implant Recipients.

INTRODUCTION: There are substantial differences in speech recognition performance of adult cochlear implant (CI) recipients. This study investigated the effects of cognitive function on speech recognition in CI recipients. METHODS: The verbal working memory of 36 adults with unilateral CIs was tested using digit span tests. Attention and inhibition abilities were assessed by using the Stroop test (both congruent and incongruent tasks). Speech recognition in noise was measured using the Turkish matrix test. RESULTS: A moderate negative correlation was observed between the critical signal-to-noise ratio obtained via speech recognition in noise test and the digit span test scores (backward and digit span total scores). There was no correlation between Stroop test scores and speech recognition in noise in CI recipients. CONCLUSION: The findings indicated that verbal working memory correlated well with speech recognition outcomes in adult CI recipients and that higher working memory capacity led to better speech recognition performance in noise.

Effect of General Anesthesia on Auditory Brainstem Response Testing.

Objective: The auditory brainstem response (ABR) test is usually applied during natural sleep, but it can also be conducted under anesthesia. This retrospective study aimed to compare the ABR findings of a general anesthesia group and a control group that underwent ABR test during natural sleep. Methods: The anesthesia group consisted of 42 (mean age 44.5±20.3 months) children, and the control group included 58 children (36.1±16.1 months). The results of the click ABR test of the two groups were compared in terms of amplitude, latency, interpeak latencies, and hearing thresholds. Results: The amplitudes of waves III and V were significantly decreased in the general anesthesia group compared with that in the control group. The ABR latencies of waves I and V and the interpeak latencies for I-V and III-V were prolonged in the anesthesia group compared with that in the control group. Moreover, the click threshold obtained in the anesthesia group was significantly higher than those of the control group. Conclusions: Clinicians and audiologists should advise families to know the effects of general anesthesia on ABR and be cautious in interpreting the results obtained in ABR test performed under anesthesia.

Investigation of the effects of auditory and visual stimuli on attention.

Attentional resources limit our perceptual capacities. One vital point is whether these resources are allotted severally to every sense or shared between them. We addressed this problem via means of topics to carry out a dual-task, both in the same modality or other modalities (visual and auditory). The primary task is to count the number of passes of the participants while watching the video that requires visual and auditory attention. Concurrently, they were also asked to notice the pure tones and visual events in the song during the video while counting their pass numbers. The results show that while the auditory task reduced the detection ability visual events task, the dual-task had a significant effect. Previous studies support that tasks requiring simultaneous auditory and visual attention affect each other. Our results have clear implications for showing that performance decreases in dual-task as the perceptual load increases.