Evaluation of sound and working memory therapy using suppression otoacoustic emission (Suppression OAE) among autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of sound and working memory therapy using Suppression Transient-Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions (TEOAE) as the outcome measure tool. Participants and Methods: A total of 20 ASD children aged 6 to 14 years participated. All participants were assigned into four groups (n=5); one control group and three experimental groups. The participants from the control group did not receive any intervention while the other three experimental groups were trained with sound therapy using three different stimuli for each group (waterfall, white noise and Quranic Recitation) and required to do working memory training concurrently. A pre and post TEOAE suppression were done to investigate the changes between pre and post intervention. Results: RM-ANOVA found no significant effect among frequency tested but largest effect size was found at 2kHz between the pre and post intervention. At 2khz, only participants who underwent white noise and working memory training had significantly higher TEOAE suppression amplitude in post intervention as compared to the pre intervention (p< 0.05) with large effect size and medium effect size for other groups. Participant underwent white noise and working memory training group has a significantly higher gain than other groups followed by waterfall and Quranic recitation group. The 2kHz of TEOAE frequency has been identified as the main contributor that affecting both emotional aspects and triggering the medial olivocochlear bundle (MOCB). Besides, the amplitude of TEOAE suppression improved in white noise group only possibly because of its large bandwidth that improved the overexictation of the MOCB function. Conclusions: This study suggests that the combination of sound therapy using white noise together working memory training has the potential to improve emotional regulation and improve the function of MOCB in ASD. The finding suggests the improvement of MOCB function indirectly can lead to more regulated emotions in individuals