Authors
Beyza Demirtaş Yılmaz, Merve Özbal Batuk, Hilal Dinçer D'Alessandro, Gonca Sennaroğlu
Published in
European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. Aug 03, 2026. Epub Aug 03, 2026.
Abstract
Children with inner ear malformations, particularlyIncomplete Partition Type II (IP-II), often exhibit variability in auditory and cognitive outcomes despite receiving appropriate rehabilitation. This study aimed to compare phoneme discrimination, executive functions, verbal memory, and hearing-related quality of life in children with IP-II using cochlear implants against peers with normal cochlear anatomy (using hearing aids or implants) and normal hearing.
Fifty-eight children (aged 7-10 years) were divided into four groups: hearing aid users (HA), cochlear implant users with normal anatomy (CI), CI users with IP-II(CI), and normal-hearing controls. The test battery included the Auditory Speech Sound Evaluation (ASSE), Stroop Test, Working Memory Scale, and HEAR-QL-26. Regression analyses examined predictors of cognitive outcomes.
Phoneme discrimination accuracy differed significantly among groups (p < 0.001), with the IP-II(CI) group demonstrating the lowest performance. Verbal memory levels also differed significantly (p = 0.014), with the HA group showing a notably higher proportion of "very low" performance. While no significant differences were found in Stroop performance, descriptively longer completion times were observed in hearing-impaired groups. Quality of life scores were significantly lower in all hearing-impaired groups (p < 0.01). Regression analyses indicated that duration of device use was a significant predictor of interference control (Stroop Level 5: β=-0.45,p = 0.002).
Children with IP-II exhibit reduced phoneme discrimination and verbal memory vulnerabilities despite comparable aided thresholds. These findings highlight the necessity of incorporating phoneme-level and cognitive assessments into routine follow-up, as audiological measures alone may underestimate functional listening challenges.
PMID:
42543434
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 03 Aug 2026.
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