Variables:
The OME data frame has 1129 rows and 7 columns:
-
ID
-
Subject ID (1 to 99, with some IDs missing). A few subjects were measured at different ages.
-
OME
-
"low" or "high" or "N/A" (at ages other than 30 and 60 months).
-
Age
-
Age of the subject (months).
-
Loud
-
Loudness of stimulus, in decibels.
-
Noise
-
Whether the signal in the stimulus was "coherent" or "incoherent".
-
Correct
-
Number of correct responses from Trials trials.
-
Trials
-
Number of trials performed.
Background
The experiment was to study otitis media with effusion (OME), a very common childhood condition where the middle ear space, which is normally air-filled, becomes congested by a fluid. There is a concomitant fluctuating, conductive hearing loss which can result in various language, cognitive and social deficits. The term ‘binaural hearing’ is used to describe the listening conditions in which the brain is processing information from both ears at the same time. The brain computes differences in the intensity and/or timing of signals arriving at each ear which contributes to sound localisation and also to our ability to hear in background noise.
Some years ago, it was found that children of 7–8 years with a history of significant OME had significantly worse binaural hearing than children without such a history, despite having equivalent sensitivity. The question remained as to whether it was the timing, the duration, or the degree of severity of the otitis media episodes during critical periods, which affected later binaural hearing. In an attempt to begin to answer this question, 95 children were monitored for the presence of effusion every month since birth. On the basis of OME experience in their first two years, the test population was split into one group of high OME prevalence and one of low prevalence.
