Original articleReduced auditory efferent activity in childhood selective mutism
Section snippets
Participants
Sixteen children with SM (age range of 5–16 years) were recruited for this study. DSM-IV criteria for selective mutism were ascertained through a semistructured interview with the parents. Normal speech production at home was verified through homemade videotapes of the children fluently conversing with members of their nuclear family. Fifty-six percent of the children had a history of evaluation and treatment by a mental health professional, and none were medicated during the study's
Results
All children had normal speech reception thresholds, normal speech discrimination, and within normal range ABR wave latencies. t test analyses revealed no significant between-group differences for any of the measures. Table 2 presents means and SDs of absolute and interpeak ABR wave latencies at an intensity level of 85 dB HL and click presentation rate of 21/sec for the SM and control children. For brevity, only the standard (85 dB HL, 21/sec) ABR data are fully reported. Reducing the
Dicussion
The findings from this study provide evidence for aberrations in MEAR function and diminished right ear TEOAE suppression in selectively mute children. These aberrations in auditory efferent activity in children with SM appear along with normal pure-tone and speech audiometry and normal brainstem transmission as indicated by ABR latencies. Based on the literature describing the possible effects of self-vocalization on hearing, it may be the case that reduced efferent activity during
Acknowledgements
This study was supported in part by a grant from the Adams Super Center for Brain Studies at Tel-Aviv University (YB-H).
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2017, International Journal of Pediatric OtorhinolaryngologyCitation Excerpt :In this study, the findings regarding a decrease in the TEOAE suppression effect in the PSIN and SLI + PSIN groups may constitute neurophysiological evidence of a decrease in MOC function in these groups, suggesting a reduction of the efferent system's inhibition effect in these populations. These results corroborate the findings of several studies that also found significant decrease in the TEOAE suppression effect in children with language impairments or auditory processing disorder [16,18,33], and [34]. As mentioned by Abdala et al. [35], the role of the medial efferent system in auditory processing is still unclear [1].
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2015, Developmental Cognitive NeuroscienceCitation Excerpt :Prevalence of abnormal findings in the healthy control group, however, was also significantly lower (8% vs. 33%, current and previous study, respectively). Taken together, the results from Bar-Haim et al. (2004) and Muchnik et al. (2013) indicate that a proportion of children with SM exhibit aberrations in auditory efferent function. These results lead to the hypothesis that difficulty to simultaneously vocalize and process incoming sounds may underlie the aberrant speaking behavior in SM.
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2020, Brazilian Journal of OtorhinolaryngologyCitation Excerpt :Due to lower levels of TEOAE suppression in children with auditory listening problems, it has been suggested that the efferent auditory system could play a role in learning in children with listening problems.29 Also, an abnormal efferent auditory pathway and decreased inhibition of OAEs have been reported in children with autism,30 Auditory Processing Difficulties (APD)31 and childhood selective mutism.32 In contrast, it has been reported that in learning disabled individuals, the presentation of noise in the contralateral ear may increase the amplitude of OAE response.20