Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy fNIRS to Improve Early Hearing Intervention in Children with Hearing Loss

What this Trial Is About

This research aims to evaluate whether adding brain activity imaging results from functional near-infrared spectroscopy fNIRS to standard hearing tests can help audiologists make better decisions about early interventions for infants with hearing loss. The study focuses on infants with permanent hearing impairments and assesses if the extra information speeds up key management decisions at critical points in the hearing care process. It also explores how acceptable and comfortable the fNIRS test experience is for parents and caregivers. The study involves providing audiologists with either standard hearing test results alone or combined with additional fNIRS test results that measure sound detection and speech discrimination in infants. Audiologists will review anonymized test data for each infant twice, once with and once without the fNIRS information, in random order with a two-month gap. Infants undergo fNIRS testing at four specific points after diagnosis, after initial hearing aid fitting, after hearing aid programming, and after cochlear implant programming. Parents or guardians will complete surveys about their experience with the fNIRS test. Participants include a pool of experienced pediatric audiologists and infants aged 1 to 24 months with permanent hearing loss. Audiologists will answer questionnaires assessing their clinical decisions and confidence levels with or without the fNIRS data. The study measures changes in audiologist confidence in management decisions and collects feedback from parents about the fNIRS test process. The total participation duration varies by role, with audiologists completing multiple assessments and infants undergoing a single fNIRS session. The trial began in May 2023 and is expected to continue until April 2028.

Improving Early Intervention in Hearing Impaired Children Using Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)