The relationship between cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP) detection and estimated audibility in infants with sensorineural hearing loss

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of objective statistical detection in CAEP testing to evaluate audibility in young infants with sensorineural hearing loss. Design: CAEP recordings to speech-based stimuli were made at three presentation levels (55, 65, or 75 dB SPL) when a group of hearing-impaired infants were either aided or unaided. Later-obtained behavioral audiograms were used as the gold standard against which to evaluate the accuracy of the automatic detection of the presence/absence of CAEP responses. Study sample: Participants were 18 infants with confirmed sensorineural hearing loss. Results: Higher sensation levels led to a greater number of present CAEP responses being detected. More CAEP waveforms were detected in the aided condition than in the unaided condition. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the presence/absence of CAEP responses defined by the automatic statistical criterion was effective in showing whether increased sensation levels provided by amplification were sufficient to reach the cortex. This was clearly apparent from the significant increase in cortical detections when comparing unaided with aided testing.