Objective: The study aims at exploring auditory aspects in young patients with Essential Tremor.

Background: Patients with Essential tremor (ET) manifest with motor as well as non motor symptoms. One of the non-motor symptoms includes aspects of hearing (Louis et al., 2015; Balaban et al., 2011). Studies on the same are sparse however, previous study on ET have shown predominant peripheral high frequency sensorineural hearing loss (Ondo et al., 2003).

Method: This is a case control study design consisting 30 participants, out of which 15 individuals with ET formed group I and 15 age, gender and education matched healthy control formed group II. Participants between the age of 30-45 years, confirmed diagnosis of ET, bilateral normal hearing and score of > 25 in Hindi Mental State Examination were included in the study. Participants were evaluated for parameters of Fahn Tolosa Marin tremor rating scale, Gap in Noise (GIN), Dichotic Digit Test (DDT) and P 300 for tonal stimulus (1 KHz frequent stimulus ; 1.5 KHz rare stimulus of the oddball paradigm presentation) at Fz, Cz and Pz positions using standard recording protocols.

Results: Results showed significant difference between G I and G II for all the parameters of GIN, DDT and P 300.

Conclusion: Imaging studies have shown pathophysiology of ET at the level of physiologically preexisting Ventral intermediate nucleus (VIM) — Motor cortex — Cerebellar network and disruption of its functional connectivity (Fang et al., 2016; Saini, Yadav and Pal 2012). Cerebellum is a major associative center for sensory integration which includes, integration of  auditory inputs as it relates to representation of sound features that are relevant for speech perception (Baumann and Mattingley, 2010). The findings of the current study i.e., 1) Significant difference noted in parameters of GIN and DDT indicating impaired temporal resolution and deficits in binaural integration -segregation of auditory stimulus respectively and 2) Significant difference in amplitude of P300 noted at Fz, Cz and Pz position reflects impaired attention which is important for processing higher level processing of ongoing auditory information. Therefore, indicating pathophysiology in the auditory pathways between brainstem to cortex in young patients with ET.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/auditory-processing-in-young-patients-of-essential-tremor/