Development of P1 cortical auditory evoked potential in children presented with sensorineural hearing loss following cochlear implantation: a longitudinal study.

PURPOSE To assess the characteristics of P1 component in children presented with pre-lingual hearing loss, users of cochlear implants, and correlate them with speech perception performance. METHODS Ten children presented with pre-lingual sensory neural hearing loss using cochlear implants participated in this research. The cortical auditory evoked potential research was carried out with the /da/ speech stimulus, presented in free field, in three moments: at cochlear implant activation, with three and six months following activation. The Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale was used to verify the speech perception. RESULTS The correlation of the three moments of the test with the latency and the amplitude of P1 component through analysis of variance were observed. The comparison of latency and amplitude of P1 in each assessment moment was performed with Tukey's test. Wilcoxon and t-test showed that the score on the Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale increased significantly with the time of cochlear implant use, nevertheless with no correlation with the latency and amplitude of P1 component in the moments assessed, as demonstrated by Spearman's and Pearson's correlations. CONCLUSION The latency and amplitude of P1 component diminish as the time of cochlear implant use increases. However, there was no correlation between its development and speech perception performance.