Koklear implant aktivasyonunun postüral stabilite üzerine etkisi

In the literature, the effect of auditory stimulus on postural control is a study subject with different results. In previous studies, the effect of acoustic stimulus on postural control was evaluated in normal hearing individuals and hearing impaired individuals. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the postural stability in young adults with cochlear implant and to investigate the effect of the white noise stimulus on the balance in three different situations: (1) Presence of the white noise stimulus while sound processor is activated, (2) Presence of the open ambient noise while sound processor is activated, (3) The sound processor is deactivated. For this aim, 34 young adults with unilateral cochlear implant between the ages of 18 and 35 included in the study. Firstly, Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) was applied to the subjects. According to the DHI, subjects with scores of less than 16 points were evaluated with Sharpened Romberg Test, Fukuda Stepping Test and Static Posturography, respectively. Modified Clinical Test of Sensory Interaction in Balance (mCTSIB) and the Unilateral Stance Test from the Static Posturography test battery were used. The balance performances were compared in three different conditions as explained above. The speaker was located 1 meter away from the subject and the white noise stimulus was presented at 65 dB. As a result of the study, a significant difference was obtained in the presence of white noise while sound processor activated and the sound processor deactivated conditions in Fukuda Stepping Test (p=.004). Although the highest balance performance was obtained in ambient noise in the mCTSIB test, no significant difference was found between the three different conditions (p>.05). In Unilateral Stance test, the balance performance was significantly higher in the presence of a white noise stimulus (p<.05). It was concluded that the auditory stimulus has a positive effect on balance performance in young adults with cochlear implants. Key words:white noise, hearing loss, cochlear implantation,postural control, static posturography.