Graeme Clark Collection

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    Clinical findings for a group of infants and young children with auditory neuropathy
    RANCE, GARY ; Beer, David E. ; Cone-Wesson, Barbara ; Shepherd, Robert K. ; Dowell, Richard C. ; King, Alison M. ; Rickards, Field W. ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 1999)
    Objective: To examine the prevalence of auditory neuropathy in a group of infants at risk for hearing impairment and to present an overview of the clinical findings for affected children. Design: Results for 20 subjects who showed repeatable cochlear microphonic potentials in the absence of click-evoked auditory brain stem responses are included in this study. Behavioral and steady state evoked potential thresholds were established in each case. Where possible, otoacoustic emission and speech perception results (unaided and aided) also were obtained. Results: One in 433 (0.23%) of the children in our series had evidence of auditory neuropathy. The audiometric findings for these subjects varied significantly, with behavioural thresholds ranging from normal to profound levels. Discrimination skills were also variable. Approximately half of the subjects showed little understanding, or even awareness, of speech inputs in both the unaided and aided conditions. There were, however, a number of children who could score at significant levels on speech discrimination tasks and who benefited from the provision of amplification. Conclusion: The results suggest that auditory neuropathy is more common in the infant population than previously suspected. The effects of neuropathy on auditory function appear to be idiosyncratic, producing significant variations in both the detection and discrimination of auditory signals. As such, the management of children with this disorder must allow for individual differences.
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    Steady-state evoked potential and behavioural hearing thresholds in a group of children with absent click-evoked auditory brain stem response
    RANCE, GARY ; Dowell, Richard C. ; Rickards, Field W. ; Beer, David E. ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 1998)
    Objective: 1) To examine the distribution of behavioural hearing thresholds in a group of children who had shown no click-evoked auditory brain stem response (ABR) at maximum presentation levels. 2) To describe the relationship between the 90 Hz steady-state evoked potential (SSEP) and behavioural thresholds in these subjects. Design: A retrospective study based on clinical findings obtained from 108 infants and young children. Each of these children had shown no recordable ABR to clicks presented at maximum levels (100 dB nHL). SSEP audiograms were obtained using AM/FM tones at the octave frequencies 250 to 4000 Hz. The results of these evoked potential assessments were compared with hearing thresholds established behaviourally. Results: Click-ABR assessment could not differentiate between the subjects in our sample with total hearing losses and those with useful residual hearing. Although some of the ears were anacusic, more than a quarter showed residual hearing ate each of the audiometric frequencies. Furthermore, at least 10% of the behavioural thresholds at each frequency fell within the moderate/severe hearing loss range. A far closer relationship was observed between SSEP and hearing thresholds. On occasions where the SSEP was absent at maximum levels, 99.5% of the ears showed either a total loss or a behavioural threshold within 10 dB of that level. When an SSEP was obtained, the hearing threshold was typically within 5 dB of the SSEP threshold. Conclusion: The results suggested that in our group of selected subjects, the SSEP technique was able to assess ears with only minimal amounts of residual hearing. Where the brevity of the acoustic click limits both its frequency specificity and its presentation level, the modulated tones used for SSEP testing allow accurate, frequency-specific assessment at high presentation levels.
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    Speech perception, production and language results in a group of children using the 22-electrode cochlear implant
    Blamey, P. J. ; Dawson, P. W. ; Dettman, S. J. ; Rowland, L. C. ; Brown, A. M. ; Busby, P. A. ; Dowell, R. C. ; Rickards, F. W. ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 1992)
    Five children out of a group of nine (aged 5.5 to 19.9 years) implanted with the 22-electrode cochlear implant (Cochlear Ply. Ltd.) have achieved substantial scores on open-set speech tests using hearing without lipreading. Phoneme scores for monosyllabic words ranged from 40% to 72%. Word scores in sentences ranged from 26% to 74%. Four of these five children were implanted during preadolescence. The fifth child, who had a progressive loss and was implanted during adolescence after a short period of very profound deafness, scored highest on all speech perception tests. The remaining four children who did not demonstrate open-set recognition were implanted during adolescence after a long duration of profound deafness. Post-operative performance on closed-set speech perception tests was better than pre-operative performance for all children. Improvements in speech and language assessments were also noted. These improvements tended to be greater for the younger children. The results are discussed with reference to variables which may contribute to successful implant use: such as age at onset, duration of profound hearing loss, age at implantation, aetiology, educational program, and the type of training provided.
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    Steady state evoked potentials: a new tool for the accurate assessment of hearing in cochlear implant candidates
    Rance, G. ; Rickards, F. W. ; Cohen, L. T. ; Burton, M. J. ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 1993)
    Precise determination of residual hearing in prospective cochlear implant candidates is essential. As the minimum age of implantation for young children has reduced, the use of objective measures of hearing has become more important. At the University of Melbourne Cochlear Implant Clinic, steady state evoked potential (SSEP) assessments are routinely carried out on all candidates under the age of 5 years using a microcomputer and custom-designed hardware in the manner described by Cohen et al. [1].
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    Cochlear implants in children, adolescents, and prelinguistically deafened adults: speech perception
    Dawson, Pam W. ; Blamey, Peter J. ; Rowland, Louise C. ; Dettman, Shani J. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Busby, Peter A. ; Brown, Alison M. ; Dowell, Richard C. ; Rickards, Field W. ( 1992)
    A group of 10 children, adolescents, and prelinguistically deafened adults were implanted with the 22-electrode cochlear implant (Cochlear Ply Ltd) at the University of Melbourne Cochlear Implant Clinic and have used the prosthesis for periods from 12 to 65 months. Postoperative performance on the majority of closed-set speech perception tests was significantly greater than chance, and significantly better than preoperative performance for all of the patients. Five of the children have achieved substantial scores on open-set speech tests using hearing without lipreading. Phoneme scores in monosyllabic words ranged from 30% to 72%; word scores in sentences ranged from 26% to 74%. Four of these 5 children were implanted during preadolescence (aged 5:5 to 10:2 years) and the fifth, who had a progressive loss, was implanted during adolescence (aged 14:8 years). The duration of profound deafness before implantation varied from 2 to 8 years. Improvements were also noted over postoperative data collection times for the younger children. The remaining 5 patients who did not demonstrate open-set recognition were implanted after a longer duration of profound deafness (aged 13:11to 20:1 years). The results are discussed with reference to variables that may affect implant performance, such as age at onset of loss, duration of profound loss, age at implantation, and duration of implantation. They are compared with results for similar groups of children using hearing aids and cochlear implants.
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    A comparison of steady-state evoked potentials to modulated tones in awake and sleeping humans
    Cohen, Lawrence T. ; Rickards, Field W. ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 1991)
    Abstract not available due to copyright.
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    Results in children using the 22 electrode cochlear implant [Abstract]
    Dawson, Pam W. ; Blamey, Peter J. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Busby, P. A. ; Rowland, L.C. ; Dettman, S. J. ; Brown, A. M. ; Dowell, Richard C. ; Rickards, Field W. ; Alcantara, Joseph I. ( 1989)
    Abstract not available due to copyright.
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    Results for two children using a multiple-electrode intracochlear implant
    Busby, P. A. ; Tong, Yit C. ; Roberts, S. A. ; Altidis, P. M. ; Dettman, S. J. ; Blamey, Peter J. ; Clark, Graeme M. ; Watson, R. K. ; Rickards, Field W. ( 1989)
    Abstract not available due to copyright.
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    Steady-state evoked potentials to amplitude-modulated tones
    Rickards, F. W. ; Clark, Graeme M. (Butterworths, 1984)
    This study is an investigation of auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) to amplitude-modulated (AM) tones. The majority of AEP studies describe transient AEPs to pure tones and clicks. These potentials include the brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs) and the middle- and long-latency cortical potentials. By contrast, the cochlear microphic (CM) and the frequency-following response (FFR) are sustained potentials observed during a pure tone stimulus.
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    Evoked responses in humans to continuous amplitude modulated tones [Abstract]
    Rickards, F. W. ; Clark, Graeme M. ( 1982)
    The clinical use of the slow cortical auditory evoked responses and the auditory brainstem response is now widespread. Both of these responses look at the electrical changes in the brain following the onset of an acoustic stimulus and are known as transient responses. This paper will describe a technique of recording electrical potentials evoked during a continuous sinusoidally-modulated amplitude-modulated tone. This type of response is known as a steady-state response. The responses to this type of sound were found to be periodic, having the same fundamental frequencies as the modulation envelope. A Fourier transform was used to quantify the amplitude and phase of the first two harmonic components of the response. Responses can be recorded for modulation rates from 4Hz to 448Hz, for carrier frequencies from 250Hz to 4KHz and for sound pressure levels (SPLs) from 30dBSPL to 100dBSPPL. In general, the response amplitude increases with SPL. Estimates of latencies of these steady-state potentials can be made by measuring the phase of both harmonics as the modulation frequency is varied. Latencies suggest the auditory cortex as one of the sources of the response. The clinical implication of these results will be discussed.