Effects of Sex, Age and Hearing Asymmetry on the Interaural Differences of Auditory Brainstem Responses

Vol. 13, No. 1, 2008

Free Abstract Article (Fulltext) Article (PDF 206 KB)

Original Paper

Effects of Sex, Age and Hearing Asymmetry on the Interaural Differences of Auditory Brainstem Responses
J.H. Hwang^{a, b}, J.C. Chao^c, H.C. Ho^b, S.H. Hsiao^b

^aGraduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei,
^bDepartment of Otolaryngology, Buddhist Dalin Tzu-Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, and
^cDepartment of Otolaryngology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan

Address of Corresponding Author

Audiol Neurotol 2008;13:29-33 (DOI: 10.1159/000107468)

Key Words

Auditory brainstem responses
Interaural differences, sex, age
Hearing asymmetry
Plasticity
Brainstem

Abstract

Healthy patients with asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss who had received examination of auditory brainstem responses (ABR) were gathered for retrospective analysis. The effects of sex, age and hearing asymmetry on the interaural differences of ipsilateral ABR were determined by multivariant linear regression. Our results showed that the interaural differences of ABR wave III and wave V latencies were significantly affected by hearing asymmetry but not by sex or age. However, in female subjects younger than 50 years, differences of III-V intervals could be negatively correlated with hearing asymmetry. We suggest that plasticity in the auditory brainstem in younger females might account for asymmetrical peripheral hearing in this group.

Author Contacts

Dr. Juen-Haur Hwang
Department of Otolaryngology, Buddhist Dalin Tzu-Chi General Hospital, No. 2
Minsheng Rd.
Chiayi 622 (Taiwan)
Tel. +886 5264 8000, ext. 5239, Fax +886 5264 8006, E-Mail G120796@tzuchi.com.tw

Article Information

Received: October 23, 2006
Accepted after revision: April 27, 2007
Published online: August 22, 2007
Number of Print Pages : 5
Number of Figures : 4, Number of Tables : 2, Number of References : 29

Medline Abstract (ID 17715467)

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