Effects of Abacus Training on Auditory Spatial Maturation in Children with Normal Hearing

Sanjana, M.; Nisha, K. V.

doi:10.1055/s-0041-1741434

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International Archives of Otorhinolaryngology

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Sumário

Original Research • iao 27 (1) • Jan-Mar 2023 • https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0041-1741434 copy

Effects of Abacus Training on Auditory Spatial Maturation in Children with Normal Hearing

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

Introduction

The spatial auditory system, though developed at birth, attains functional maturity in the late childhood (12 years). Spatial changes during childhood affect navigation in the environment and source segregation. Accommodation of a new skill through learning, especially during childhood, can expedite this process.

Objective

To explore the auditory spatial benefits of abacus training on psychoacoustic metrics in children. The study also aimed to identify the most sensitive metric to abacus training related changes in spatial processing, and utilize this metric for a detailed spatial error profiling.

Methods

A standard group comparison analysis with 90 participants divided into three groups: I: children with abacus training (C-AT); II: children with no training (C-UT); III: adults with no training (A-UT). The groups underwent a series of psychoacoustic tests, such as interaural time difference (ITD), interaural level difference (ILD), and virtual auditory space identification (VASI), as well as perceptual tests such as the Kannada version of the speech, spatial, and quality questionnaire (K-SSQ).

Results

Significant group differences were observed in the multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and post-hoc tests, with the C-AT group showing significantly lower ILD scores (p = 0.01) and significantly higher VASI scores (p < 0.001) compared to the CUT group, which is indicative of better spatial processing abilities in the former group. The discriminant function (DF) analyses showed that the VASI was the most sensitive metric for training-related changes, based on which elaborate error analyses were performed.

Conclusions

Despite the physiological limits of the immature neural framework, the performance of the C-AT group was equivalent to that of untrained adults on psychoacoustic tests, which is reflective of the positive role of abacus training in expediting auditory spatial maturation.

Keywords
spatial perception; maturation; psychoacoustics; virtual; discriminant analysis; abacus training

Discriminating variables/tests	Function 1	Function 2
ITD	-0.33*	-0.30
ILD	0.65	1.05
VASI	0.88*	0.02
K-SSQ	0.34	-0.06

Original group	Predicted Group Allocation			Total ears
Original group	C-AT	C-UT	A-UT	Total ears
C-AT	20 (66.7%)	0.00 (0.00)	10 (33.3%)	30 (100%)
C-UT	2 (16.7%)	20 (66.7%)	5 (16.7%)	30 (100%)
A-UT	10 (33.3%)	8 (26.6%)	12 (40.00%)	30 (100%)

Virtual location	F value (2, 87)	Bonfetroni pair-wise comparisons
Virtual location	F value (2, 87)	C-AT	C-UT	A-UT
R45	15.98, p = 0.00, ηp² =0.27
R90	4.06, p = 0.08, ηp² = 0.08
R135	5.36, p = 0.06, ηp² =0.11
180	6.99, p = 0.02, ηp² = 0.14
L135	1.24, p = 0.29, ηp² = 0.03
L90	9.96, p = 0.00, ηp²= 0.19
L45	22.62, p = 0.00, ηp² =0.34
0	7.62, p = 0.001, ηp² =0.15

Virtual locations	Within errors			Across hemifield errors
	Within errors			Symmetrical			Asymmetrical
	C- AT	C- UT	A -UT	C-AT	C-UT	A-UT	C-AT	C-UT	A-UT
R45	1.73 (0.73)	2.63 (1.12)	1.73 (1.35)	0.00 (0.00)	0.00 (0.00)	0.33 (0.18)	0.00 (0.00)	0.67 (0.25)	0.67 (0.25)
R90	0.40 (0.40)	0.78 (0.55)	0.90 (0.82)	0.00 (0.00)	0.00 (0.00)	0.06 (0.25)	0.00 (0.00)	0.03 (0.18)	0.00 (0.00)
R135	1.97 (1.07)	2.33 (1.20)	1.71 (1.04)	0.15 (0.46)	0.16 (0.36)	0.06 (0.26)	0.00 (0.00)	0.33 (0.18)	0.16 (0.37)
180				0.07 (0.27)	0.53 (1.00)	1.20 (1.77)
L135	1.10 (0.83)	1.28 (1.33)	1.27 (1.09)	0.03 (0.18)	0.03 (0.18)	0.03 (0.18)	0.00 (0.00)	0.00 (0.00)	0.00 (0.00)
L90	0.25 (0.31)	1.00 (0.78)	1.01 (0.73)	0.07 (0.39)	0.00 (0.00)	0.03 (0.18)	0.00 (0.00)	0.03 (0.18)	0.20 (0.55)
L45	2.20 (0.88)	2.38 (1.14)	0.96 (1.01)	0.00 (0.00)	0.03 (0.18)	0.03 (0.18)	0.00 (0.00)	0.00 (0.00)	0.00 (0.00)
0				0.19 (0.49)	1.16 (1.62)	3.13 (3.05)

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[1] Address for correspondence K. V. Nisha, PhD, Department of Audiology, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH), Mysore 570006, Karnataka, India (e-mail: nishakv@aiishmysore.in).