Aplicabilidade do teste da habilidade de atenção auditiva sustentada - THAAS em campo livre

INTRODUÇÃO: A atenção é uma função neuropsicológica subjacente a todos os processos cognitivos. A deficiência auditiva compromete o desenvolvimento normal da criança, alterando diversas habilidades auditivas, incluindo a atenção. OBJETIVO: comparar o desempenho de crianças no Teste da Habilidade de Atenção Auditiva Sustentada-THAAS, no que se refere às diferentes formas de aplicação (fones auriculares e campo livre), gênero e, ordem de aplicação. MÉTODO: participaram 40 crianças (7 anos) voluntárias com desenvolvimento típico, divididas em dois grupos: G1 e G2, compostos de 20 crianças cada. A aplicação do THAAS no G1 se deu primeiramente com fones auriculares e em seguida em campo livre e no G2 o processo foi inverso. A avaliação constituiu-se em: questionário específico, testes auditivos e aplicação do THAAS. RESULTADOS: Não houve diferença significante quanto ao gênero. Para o THAAS com fones, o G1 apresentou maior quantidade de erros de desatenção e pontuação total. Para o THAAS em campo houve uma diferença significante do G2 para o decréscimo de vigilância. Quanto à forma de aplicação, o G1 demonstrou um número maior de erros quando foi utilizado fones. O G2 não demonstrou diferença. CONCLUSÃO: Houve viabilidade na aplicação do THAAS em Campo Livre, podendo ser adotado os mesmos valores normativos usados para o modo convencional de avaliação.

Percepção dos pais sobre a habilidade de atenção auditiva de seu filho com fissura labiopalatina: estudo retrospectivo

INTRODUÇÃO: Para processar e decodificar o estímulo acústico são necessários mecanismos cognitivos e neurofisiológicos. O estímulo auditivo sofre influências de fatores cognitivos de nível mais alto, tais como a memória, atenção e aprendizagem. A privação sensorial ocasionada por perda auditiva do tipo condutiva, frequente na população com fissura labiopalatina, pode afetar várias funções cognitivas - dentre elas a atenção, além de prejudicar os desempenhos escolares, linguísticos e interpessoais. OBJETIVO: Verificar a percepção dos pais de crianças com fissura labiopalatina sobre a atenção auditiva de seus filhos. MÉTODO: Estudo retrospectivo de crianças com qualquer tipo de fissura labiopalatina, sem qualquer síndrome genética associada cujos pais responderam a um questionário pertinente sobre a habilidade de atenção auditiva. RESULTADOS: 44 são do gênero masculino e 26 do gênero feminino, 35,71% das respostas foram afirmativas para a presença de perda auditiva e 71,43% para infecções otológicas. CONCLUSÃO: A maioria dos pais entrevistados apontou pelo menos um dos comportamentos relacionados à atenção contidos no questionário, indicando que a presença de fissura labiopalatina pode estar relacionada com dificuldades quanto à atenção auditiva.

Investigation of auditory processing disorder and language impairment using the speech-evoked auditory brainstem response

This study investigated whether there are differences in the Speech-Evoked Auditory Brainstem Response among children with Typical Development (TD), (Central) Auditory Processing Disorder (C) APD, and Language Impairment (LI). The speech-evoked Auditory Brainstem Response was tested in 57 children (ages 6-12). The children were placed into three groups: TD (n = 18), (C)APD (n = 18) and LI (n = 21). Speech-evoked ABR were elicited using the five-formant syllable/da/. Three dimensions were defined for analysis, including timing, harmonics, and pitch. A comparative analysis of the responses between the typical development children and children with (C)APD and LI revealed abnormal encoding of the speech acoustic features that are characteristics of speech perception in children with (C)APD and LI, although the two groups differed in their abnormalities. While the children with (C)APD might had a greater difficulty distinguishing stimuli based on timing cues, the children with LI had the additional difficulty of distinguishing speech harmonics, which are important to the identification of speech sounds. These data suggested that an inefficient representation of crucial components of speech sounds may contribute to the difficulties with language processing found in children with LI. Furthermore, these findings may indicate that the neural processes mediated by the auditory brainstem differ among children with auditory processing and speech-language disorders. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Bagging k-dependence probabilistic networks: An alternative powerful fraud detection tool

Fraud is a global problem that has required more attention due to an accentuated expansion of modern technology and communication. When statistical techniques are used to detect fraud, whether a fraud detection model is accurate enough in order to provide correct classification of the case as a fraudulent or legitimate is a critical factor. In this context, the concept of bootstrap aggregating (bagging) arises. The basic idea is to generate multiple classifiers by obtaining the predicted values from the adjusted models to several replicated datasets and then combining them into a single predictive classification in order to improve the classification accuracy. In this paper, for the first time, we aim to present a pioneer study of the performance of the discrete and continuous k-dependence probabilistic networks within the context of bagging predictors classification. Via a large simulation study and various real datasets, we discovered that the probabilistic networks are a strong modeling option with high predictive capacity and with a high increment using the bagging procedure when compared to traditional techniques. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Auditory brainstem implant outcomes and MAP parameters: Report of experiences in adults and children

The auditory brainstem implant (ABI) was first developed to help neurofibromatosis type 2 patients. Recently, its use has been recently extended to adults with non-tumor etiologies and children with profound hearing loss who were not candidates for a cochlear implant (Cl). Although the results has been extensively reported, the stimulation parameters involved behind the outcomes have received less attention. Objective: The aim of this study is to describe the audiologic outcomes and the MAP parameters in ABI adults and children at our center. Methods: Retrospective chart review. Five adults and four children were implanted with the ABI24M from September 2005 to June 2009. In the adult patients, four had Neurofibromatosis type 2, and one had postmeningitic deafness with complete ossification of both cochleae. Three of the children had cochlear malformation or dysplasia, and one had complete ossified cochlea due to meningitis. Map parameters as well as the intraoperative electrical auditory brainstem responses were collected. Evaluation was performed with at least six months of device use and included free-field hearing thresholds, speech perception tests in the adult patients and for the children, the Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) and (ESP) were used to evaluate the development of auditory skills, besides the MUSS to evaluate. Results: The number of active electrodes that did not cause any non-auditory sensation varied from three to nineteen. All of them were programmed with SPEAK strategy, and the pulse widths varied from 100 to 300 mu s. Free-field thresholds with warble tones varied from very soft auditory sensation of 70 dBHL at 250 Hz to a pure tone average of 45 dBHL. Speech perception varied from none to 60% open-set recognition of sentences in silence in the adult population and from no auditory sensation at all to a slight improvement in the IT-MAIS/MAIS scores. Conclusion: We observed that ABI may be a good option for offering some hearing attention to both adults and children. In children, the results might not be enough to ensure oral language development. Programming the speech processor in children demands higher care to the audiologist. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.