The use of P300 with speech stimulus for monitoring the auditory training

Abstract

Introduction: Once confirmed the diagnosis of Auditory Processing Disorder, it is necessary to provide auditory training to improve the auditory skills. The basis for auditory training is based on neuronal plasticity and beneficial changes in auditory behavior and the central auditory pathways. These changes can be monitored by electrophysiological tests, as the the long latency auditory evoked potentials (P300). Objective: To assess the effectiveness of auditory training in children with auditory processing disorder through P300 with speech stimuli. Methods: The P300 was performed in 10 subjects, aged between seven and 14 years (both genders) of Clinical Speech Pathology, University of Guarulhos, before and after auditory training. The intervention program consisted of nine individual sessions. All participants underwent the P300. The test was performed with 500 binaural acoustic stimuli (syllables /BA/ for highprobability sounds and /GA/ for low-probability sounds), at 75 dB HL. The rare and frequent stimuli were presented in random order (oddball paradigm). Results: After the auditory training it was observed an improvement in the results of P300, by a statistically significant latency reduction and increased amplitude of the P300 at the instant post-auditory training. Conclusion: P300 elicited by speech was considered a sensitive tool to monitor the effectiveness of auditory training. rk.