Exploring (central) auditory processing deficits in individuals with Broca's aphasia: Based on case study

Abstract

It is well known fact that persons with lesions involving either the right or left temporal lobe tended to show impaired performances for complex auditory task and showed auditory processing disorder symptoms. Present study was aimed to find out whether auditory processing deficit exists in individuals with Broca's aphasia due to stroke based on case studies outcomes through detailed behavioral and electrophysiological audiological assessment. There were two participants (case 'A' and case 'B') diagnosed as having Boca's aphasia taken for the study. Case 'A' and 'B' were 39 and 29 year old male participated in the study. They were assessed for routine audiological and detailed auditory processing disorders tests like pitch pattern test, gap detection test and dichotic digit test. Further, they were also assessed for electrophysiological tests like click evoked auditory brainstem response and auditory late latency response. The routine audiological tests reveal no peripheral hearing loss in both the cases. However, details behavioral (C)APD tests results revealed overall poorer performance for different tasks in both cases. In addition to that, electrophysiological tests results also revealed abnormal brainstem and cortical responses in both cases. Hence, preliminary report of the present study suggests that cases with lesion (strokes) should be evaluated in detail for auditory processing deficit.