Comparison of Auditory Brain Stem Responses and Otoacoustic Emission of Autism with Healthy Children

BACKGROUND: Autism is a neurodevelopment disorder, including difficulty in establishing relationships and social interaction, difficulty in communication, performing restricted, and repetitive behaviors. The impaired reception and integration of sensory information especially auditory data are one of the main characteristics of children with autism. According to various studies, the brain stem plays a key role in the reception and integration of auditory and sensory data. Hence, this study aims to comparison auditory brain stem responses (ABR) and otoacoustic emission (OAE) of autism patients with healthy children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This case-control study was performed on 20 autism children (4-8 years old) as case group who referred to psychiatry clinics affiliated with Tabriz University of Medical Sciences and 20 healthy age-matched as the control group. The severity of autism was evaluated by the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS). Also, ABR and OAE were recorded, and all data compared with the healthy children. RESULTS: The latencies between the waves III-V and I-V bilaterally, and wave V bilaterally and wave I in the left ear showed a significant increase in children with autism compared to the healthy group. CONCLUSION: This study shows that there was a reduced nerve conduction velocity in the auditory pathway of the brain stem in children with autism compared to healthy children.