Otitis in infancy may affect hearing for years

Infection of the middle ear compartment, called otitis media, in babies can affect the way their brains process sounds years after the initial infection, according to a recent report from India.

Infancy is a time when the brain rapidly develops the ability to sort out and respond to input from the five senses. If these external stimuli are blunted or absent, however, the appropriate brain development can be impaired.

Even otitis media of a short duration “in the first year of life can cause long-standing auditory processing deficits,” Sandeep Maruthy from the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing in Mysore told Reuters Health.

Maruthy and Dr. Jayaram Mannarukrishnaiah from the National Institute of Mental Health Neuro Sciences, Bangalore, evaluated the effect of an early bout of otitis media in 30 children.

They found that electrical signals in the brain triggered by an auditory click were slower and of lower amplitude than normal in the children in the group who were 3 years old. However, these impairments were no longer present in 4-year-old children, the researchers report in the medical journal Behavioral and Brain Functions.

If the finding holds true in studies of children followed for several years, Maruthy added, it would call for measures “to reduce the chances of auditory deprivation during the active episodes of otitis media.”

This might mean, for example, “speaking closer to the child or being louder while speaking to the child so as to compensate for the reduced hearing sensitivity.”

SOURCE: Behavioral and Brain Functions, online April 2, 2008.

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