Facial and Auditory Recognition Abilities of Implanted Primary Schoolers.

OBJECTIVE: Emotions are often conveyed via visual and together with the auditory mode in social interaction. We aimed to investigate the ability to recognize facial and/or auditory emotions in school-aged children with cochlear implantation and healthy controls. METHODS: All participants were asked to respond to facial emotions of Ekman and Friesen's pictures, then auditory emotions, and last, they were asked to respond to video-based dynamic synchronous facial and auditory emotions. RESULTS: The mean accuracy rates in recognizing anger (p = 0.025), surprise (p = 0.029), and neutral (p = 0.029) faces were significantly worse in children with cochlear implants (CIs) than in healthy controls. They were significantly worse than healthy controls in recognizing all auditory emotions except auditory emotion of fear (p = 0.067). The mean accuracy rates in recognizing video-based auditory/facial emotions of surprise (p = 0.031) and neutral (p = 0.029) emotions were significantly worse in children with CIs. CONCLUSION: The children with hearing loss were poorer in recognizing surprise, anger, and neutral facial emotions than healthy children; they had similar performance in recognizing anger emotions when both stimuli were given synchronously which may have a positive effect on social behaviors. It seems beneficial that emotion recognition training should be included in rehabilitation programs.

Comparison of anesthetic agents on otoacoustic emissions in children: propofol vs ketamine.

BACKGROUND: Otoacoustic emission (OAE) tests are important evaluation tools for diagnosis of peripheral auditory pathology. Sedation or general anesthesia may be required for the performance of the OAE tests. The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the effects of anesthetic agents, propofol and ketamine, on OAEs in children. METHODS: Fifty healthy children who underwent tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy under general anesthesia were included in this study. Three anesthesia induction protocols were defined for this study and the anesthesiologist applied his or her own choice. Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) and distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) were automatically recorded in both ears of each patient prior to anesthetic (predrug) and following the loss of consciousness 5 min later (postdrug) by an audiologist blinded to the method of anesthesia. Acceptable TEOAEs were defined as signal noise ratio (S/N) of above 3 dB SPL (decibel sound pressure level) and DPOAEs of 6 dB SPL or above. Between-group and within-group comparisons and correlations were performed for statistical analysis. RESULTS: Retrospective review of the anesthesia charts from 44 cases that completed the study showed that propofol, ketamine, and sevoflurane induction protocols were used in 21, 18, and 5 cases, respectively. Measurements of 36 ears in the propofol group and 34 ears in the ketamine group were included in the final analysis. Postdrug TEOAE and DPOAE amplitudes were significantly lower than predrug amplitudes except at 8 kHz in the ketamine group. There was no significant statistical difference in postdrug DPOAE measurements between propofol and ketamine groups but a significant difference was observed at 2 and 3 kHz of postdrug TEOAE measurements. TEOAE measurements were below 3 dB in 8 of 34 ears after ketamine and in 1 of 36 ears after propofol administration. There was a significant difference between the groups with respect to the incidence of successful measurements of TEOAEs. The DPOAE measurements were affected less by these drugs. CONCLUSION: DPOAE measurements were reduced similarly by propofol and ketamine anesthesia. Lower false outcome ratio in TEOAE measurements made propofol a better option than ketamine.