Auditory Profile Research Articles

The Triple Root (Agnosia) in the Holy Quran is a Linguistic Study

This research, titled "The Triliteral Root (ʿAgnosia) in the Holy Quran: This paper aims at offering both linguistic and semantic analysis of the triliteral root “ʿ-Agnosia” in the Quran: A Linguistic Study. Incredibly, the language study of The Holy Quran is an academic interest to date, with the Holy Scripture being an ocean of knowledge. This research resulted from the need to be more precise in understanding some of the suras and certain features of Arabic and the Quran in particular some aspects of the root “ʿ-Agnosia” which is mentioned in some verses of the Quran with different meaning in Arabic. The work is divided into three sections each discussing a facet of the root ‘ʿAgnosia’ In the first place, the morphological and phonological properties of the root ‘ʿ ʿAgnosia’ with reference to the Quran. This is how this root expands the quantitative and qualitative meaning sphere of Quranic Arabic and adds its variety to the language, in general. The second section is therefore concerned with the phonic properties of the root: the place and the manner of articulation of the letters making up the root, and the phonological regularity which may be gleaned from the use of the root. The present analysis proves useful to throw the light on the auditory profile and the rhythm pattern of the root and how it is intoned in quranic recital with harmony and precision. The third section is devoted to the relations of this root with the internal structure of the words and phrases of the Quranic text: analysis of the morphological aspect of “ʿ- ʿAgnosia” In addition, identification and differentiation of number of forms and derivations of the root and correlation with the variables of the verses where it is used to determine the significance of the root in the verses of QURAN. When this analysis is done, not only works of classical and modern linguistics in reference to the root are reviewed and discussed and but also interpretations of the Quran. In the final section of the study, the authors reiterate the findings of investigation also bringing out the major ideas regarding the centrality of the root for enhancing the proclamatory task of the Quran as the Word of God. It is in this light, then, that this study aims at contributing to the existing body of knowledge on Quranic linguistics through a word by word examination of a particular root, the lack of which greatly hinders meaning construction in the Quran. It serves at making the reader to be appreciate on the difficulty in the language of the Quran and that the writers took their time to pen down the Quran. The study concludes by tabulating the basic findings in addition to identifying the sources that have been used in the course of the study. I pray to Allah, the Almighty Allah to shower his blessings to this work and any other further research to be made on the linguistic miracles of the Holy Quran.

Impact on Hearing Among SARS COV-2 Infected Adults and Children Born to Gestational COVID-19 Infected Mothers: A Prospective Case Control Study.

SARS COV 2 infection affects primarily the respiratory system and various organs in humans is responsible for higher mortality secondary to cytokine storm during the COVID-19 pandemic. It affects the internal auditory system is responsible for Sensory neural hearing loss in adults as well as children born to COVID-19 infected mothers. This study was aimed to detect the pattern of hearing loss in COVID-19 infected adults and pattern of hearing loss in children born to gestational COVID-19 infected mothers. Fifty asymptomatic RT-PCR COVID-19 infected adults and age, sex matched healthy controls were evaluated for audiological profile using Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA). Children born to COVID-19 infected mothers were tested using Transient product otoacoustic emissions and click-evoked auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) compared with children born to non-COVID mothers. PTA auditory profile of COVID-19 infected adults on day 7 had 30% (16 out of 50) significant high frequency sensory neural hearing impairment for 4000Hz (p value 0.003), 6000Hz (p value 0.001), 8000Hz (p value 0.001). Repeat PTA testing on day 30 showed normal hearing. Whereas in children, 40% (n = 20) born to COVID-19 infected mothers had OAE as "Refer". BERA (ABRs) testing of that OAE "Refer" children revealed 30% (n = 6) hearing impairment. COVID-19 infection cause transient type of high frequency sensory neural hearing loss in adults. Whereas in children born to COVID-19 infected mothers there is risk of developing permanent, progressive or long-standing transient type of sensory neural hearing loss.

Sound perception of children aged 2–6 years with autism spectrum disorder

According to prior research, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) process auditory signals differently from typically developing (TD) children. However, their sound perception still needs to be clarified. In this study, an in-depth interview with teachers was carried out to investigate the sound perception dimensions and process of ASD children aged 2–6 years when they were listening to sounds in their daily lives. An experiment was then conducted to explore the sound preference of the ASD and TD children. The following results were obtained: 1) The interview showed that the sound perception dimensions of ASD children included loudness, musicality, complexity, spectrum component, and familiarity. 2) The sound perception process of ASD children included selective listening, cognition, and anticipation. 3) The sound preference of ASD children was associated with their auditory profile rather than psychoacoustic parameters such as tonality, sharpness, and roughness which differed from the situation of TD children.

Deconvolution of Ears' Activity (DEA): A New Experimental Paradigm to Investigate Central Auditory Processing.

A novel experimental paradigm, “deconvolution of ears' activity” (DEA), is presented which allows to disentangle overlapping neural activity from both auditory cortices when two auditory stimuli are presented closely together in time in each ear. Pairs of multi-tone complexes were presented either binaurally, or sequentially by alternating presentation order in each ear (i.e., first tone complex of the pair presented to one ear and second tone complex to the other ear), using stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) shorter than the neural response length. This timing strategy creates overlapping responses, which can be mathematically separated using least-squares deconvolution. The DEA paradigm allowed the evaluation of the neural representation in the auditory cortex of responses to stimuli presented at syllabic rates (i.e., SOAs between 120 and 260 ms). Analysis of the neuromagnetic responses in each cortex offered a sensitive technique to study hemispheric lateralization, ear representation (right vs. left), pathway advantage (contra- vs. ipsi-lateral) and cortical binaural interaction. To provide a proof-of-concept of the DEA paradigm, data was recorded from three normal-hearing adults. Results showed good test-retest reliability, and indicated that the difference score between hemispheres can potentially be used to assess central auditory processing. This suggests that the method could be a potentially valuable tool for generating an objective “auditory profile” by assessing individual fine-grained auditory processing using a non-invasive recording method.

Strength of Attentional Modulation on Cortical Auditory Evoked Responses Correlates with Speech-in-Noise Performance in Bimodal Cochlear Implant Users.

Auditory selective attention is a crucial top-down cognitive mechanism for understanding speech in noise. Cochlear implant (CI) users display great variability in speech-in-noise performance that is not easily explained by peripheral auditory profile or demographic factors. Thus, it is imperative to understand if auditory cognitive processes such as selective attention explain such variability. The presented study directly addressed this question by quantifying attentional modulation of cortical auditory responses during an attention task and comparing its individual differences with speech-in-noise performance. In our attention experiment, participants with CI were given a pre-stimulus visual cue that directed their attention to either of two speech streams and were asked to select a deviant syllable in the target stream. The two speech streams consisted of the female voice saying "Up" five times every 800 ms and the male voice saying "Down" four times every 1 s. The onset of each syllable elicited distinct event-related potentials (ERPs). At each syllable onset, the difference in the amplitudes of ERPs between the two attentional conditions (attended - ignored) was computed. This ERP amplitude difference served as a proxy for attentional modulation strength. Our group-level analysis showed that the amplitude of ERPs was greater when the syllable was attended than ignored, exhibiting that attention modulated cortical auditory responses. Moreover, the strength of attentional modulation showed a significant correlation with speech-in-noise performance. These results suggest that the attentional modulation of cortical auditory responses may provide a neural marker for predicting CI users' success in clinical tests of speech-in-noise listening.

Speech-Driven Spectrotemporal Receptive Fields Beyond the Auditory Cortex

We recently developed a method to estimate speech-driven spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRFs) using fMRI. The method uses spectrotemporal modulation filtering, a form of acoustic distortion that renders speech sometimes intelligible and sometimes unintelligible. Using this method, we found significant STRF responses only in classic auditory regions throughout the superior temporal lobes. However, our analysis was not optimized to detect small clusters of STRFs as might be expected in non-auditory regions. Here, we re-analyze our data using a more sensitive multivariate statistical test for cross-subject alignment of STRFs, and we identify STRF responses in non-auditory regions including the left dorsal premotor cortex (dPM), left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and bilateral calcarine sulcus (calcS). All three regions responded more to intelligible than unintelligible speech, but left dPM and calcS responded significantly to vocal pitch and demonstrated strong functional connectivity with early auditory regions. Left dPM's STRF generated the best predictions of activation on trials rated as unintelligible by listeners, a hallmark auditory profile. IFG, on the other hand, responded almost exclusively to intelligible speech and was functionally connected with classic speech-language regions in the superior temporal sulcus and middle temporal gyrus. IFG's STRF was also (weakly) able to predict activation on unintelligible trials, suggesting the presence of a partial ‘acoustic trace’ in the region. We conclude that left dPM is part of the human dorsal laryngeal motor cortex, a region previously shown to be capable of operating in an ‘auditory mode’ to encode vocal pitch. Further, given previous observations that IFG is involved in syntactic working memory and/or processing of linear order, we conclude that IFG is part of a higher-order speech circuit that exerts a top-down influence on processing of speech acoustics. Finally, because calcS is modulated by emotion, we speculate that changes in the quality of vocal pitch may have contributed to its response.

Masking level difference among brazilian military personnel: a comparison between pilots and non-pilots

Objectives The aims of this study were to investigate auditory habits and binaural interaction among pilot and non-pilot military personnel from the Brazilian Air Force. Design A cross-sectional study using (1) an auditory habits questionnaire to outline the groups auditory profile and (2) the masking level difference test (MLD, Auditec, Saint Louis®) to evaluate and compare the groups. Study Sample Forty military male personnel aged between 30–40 years old, all with normal hearing, comprising 20 pilots in the study group (SG), and 20 non-pilots, not exposed to noise, in the control group (CG). Results There was no significant difference between groups regarding auditory habits. In the MLD test, a significantly better performance under the homophasic condition (S0N0) was found in the SG. Under the antiphasic condition (SπN0) there were no differences between groups. This combination resulted in a significantly lower MLD in the SG compared to the CG. Conclusions Repeated exposure to conditions where active pilots have to learn to recognise speech in noisy backgrounds may lead to a better performance in the MLD’s homophasic condition (S0N0).

Sub-optimal construction of an auditory profile from temporally distributed spectral information.

When spectral components of a complex sound are presented not simultaneously but distributed over time, human listeners can still, to a degree, perceptually recover the spectral profile of the sound. This capability of integrating spectral information over time was investigated using a cued informational masking paradigm. Listeners detected a 1-kHz pure tone in a simultaneous masker composed of six random-frequency tones drawn on every trial. The spectral profile of the masker was cued using a precursor sound that consisted of a sequence of 50-ms bursts, separated by inter-burst intervals of 100 ms. Each burst in the precursor consisted of pure tones at the masker frequencies with tones appearing at each of the masker frequencies at different presentation probabilities. As the presentation probability increased in different conditions, the detectability of the target improved, indicating reliable precursor cuing regarding the spectral content of the masker. For many listeners, performance did not significantly improve as the number of precursor bursts increased from 2 to 16, indicating inefficient integration of information beyond 2 bursts. Additional analyses suggest that when intensity of the bursts is relatively constant, the contribution of the precursor is dominated by information in the initial burst.

Association between the auditory profile and speech-language-hearing diagnosis in children and adolescents

ABSTRACT Purpose: to verify the association between the auditory assessment result and the speech-language-hearing diagnosis in children and adolescents. Methods: an observational, cross-sectional study based on the analysis of medical records of children and adolescents that received care at a speech-language-hearing assessment outpatient center between 2010 and 2014. Data on sociodemographic characteristics, speech-language-hearing diagnosis, auditory examination results, and Auditory Processing Simplified Assessment results were collected. Descriptive and association analyses were conducted with either the chi-squared or Fisher’s exact test, considering the 5% statistical significance level. Results: the sample comprised 122 participants, most of them males (67.2%), mean age 8.78 years. A statistically significant association was verified between the audiometry result and the diagnostic hypothesis of change in written language (p = 0.011); between the results of both the sequential memory test for nonverbal sounds and sound localization and the diagnostic hypotheses of change in the cognitive aspects of language (p = 0.019 and p = 0.033, respectively) and of speech (p = 0.003 and p = 0.020, respectively); and between the result of the sequential memory test for verbal sounds and the diagnostic hypothesis of change in speech (p = 0.005). Conclusion: given the associations found, it is proposed that children and adolescents with changes in speech undergo the Auditory Processing Simplified Assessment to verify the possibility of changed aspects, favoring directed therapeutic interventions.

STUDENTS’ STRATEGIC COMPETENCE PROFILES IN SOLVING MATHEMATICS PROBLEM BASED ON LEARNING STYLES

The purpose of this research was to describe the profiles of students' strategic competences that havevisual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning style in solving mathematics problem. There were three subjects,one visual student, one auditory student, one kinesthetic student, which were chosen from the eleventhgrade students of Science with high mathematical abilities, good communication skills, and the samegender. The instruments used were the VAK learning style test, the mathematics ability test, themathematics problem solving test, and the interview guidelines. The results obtained the description ofvisual student profile, auditory student profile, and kinesthetic student profile in selecting andimplementing strategies when formulating, representing, and solving problems, as follows: (1) visualstudent read silently, imagined, and drew to understand the problem; mentioned the known and unknowninformation verbally with the help of images; used images and symbols to represent problems; observed,analyzed and broke down images to find relevant concepts and formulas; solved the problem using thoseconcepts and formulas. (2) Auditory student read in a low voice and drew to understand the problem;mentioned the known and unknown information verbally and in writing; used images and symbols torepresent problems; observed images and recalled her knowledge to find relevant concepts and formulas;solved the problem using those concepts and formulas. (3) Kinesthetic student read silently while drawingto understand the problem; mentioned the known and unknown information verbally followed by her bodycues; used images and symbols to represent problems; observed, analyzed and broke down images to findrelevant concepts and formulas; solved problems using those concepts and formulas; random checked toexamine her solution. The results of this study are important as information for mathematics teachers aboutthe strategic competences of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic students in solving mathematics problems.From this information, mathematics teachers are expected to be able to design learning that can facilitateall students in developing their strategic competences.

Triagem auditiva na educação infantil: associação com determinantes de saúde

Objetivo: Descrever os resultados da triagem auditiva em escolares da educação infantil e verificar associação com aspectos socioeconômicos e histórico de saúde. Métodos: Amostra composta por 199 crianças. A coleta de dados consistiu na aplicação de questionário estruturado de caracterização da amostra do Critério de Classificação Econômica Brasil e realização de exame de Emissões Otoacústicas Evocadas Transientes. Resultados: A análise descritiva do perfil dos participantes revelou semelhança entre os sexos e média de idade de quatro anos e oito meses. No perfil auditivo observou-se que a maioria apresentou resultado “passa” no exame de emissões otoacústicas. Apesar de não apresentar resultado com significância estatística, a associação entre resultado das emissões otoacústicas e dados socioeconômicos revelou que a classificação do grau de escolaridade do chefe de família predominante foi analfabeto/ensino fundamental 1 incompleto, classificada no nível socioeconômico D/E do Critério de Classificação Econômica Brasil, a maioria possuía bolsa família e poucas crianças possuíam plano de saúde. A análise dos resultados “falha” das emissões otoacústicas e o histórico de saúde também não apresentaram resultado significante, mas revelou que das crianças que apresentaram este resultado, a maioria dos responsáveis respondeu que o escolar ouve bem, foi ao médico há menos de 12 meses, não faz uso de medicamentos e não realiza algum tipo de tratamento. Conclusões: A maioria das crianças apresentou resultado “passa” nas emissões otoacústicas e não houve associações com significância estatística entre a triagem auditiva escolar, os aspectos socioeconômicos e histórico de saúde.

Development and standardization of the University of Cincinnati Auditory Processing Inventory (UCAPI)†

Objective: A literature review found that questionnaires for persons with problems of listening seeking assessment of auditory processing skills are not applicable for adolescents and adults. We developed a questionnaire designed for adolescents and adults seeking evaluation of problems with listening or following diagnosis to determine the subject’s status.Design: Following a model described by Del Zoppo, Sanchez, and Lind, a 34-item questionnaire was developed that investigates auditory processing abilities in six common areas of complaint in Auditory processing disorders (APD) (Keith, et al. 2017).Sample:The questionnaire was administered to 278 typically-achieving young adults and normative values of performance were developed. Validation data were acquired from 3 studies of subjects with language-learning or auditory processing disorders.Results:The total UCAPI score found by combining the totals from the six listening conditions provides an overall value to categorise listening abilities. The listening conditions provide an auditory profile for the person being evaluated. Finally, UCAPI scores obtained from subjects with a previous diagnosis of APD were substantially poorer than typical subjects, data that provide evidence of the validity of questionnaire validity.Conclusions: Results from the UCAPI can be useful to professionals in helping to make recommendations when diagnosing problems of learning through listening, as well as aid in developing management strategies.

A influência da música amplificada no perfil auditivo de estudantes de ensino médio

Objetivo: Verificar o perfil auditivo de estudantes de Ensino Médio, usuários de música amplificada em dispositivos de escuta pessoal. Método: Foi aplicado questionário e concedidas informações sobre saúde auditiva, sendo realizada a avaliação audiológica composta por Audiometria Tonal Liminar, Imitanciometria e Emissões Otoacústicas Evocadas por Produto de Distorção. Resultados: A média de faixa etária dos 19 estudantes de Ensino Médio participantes foi 16,36 anos. Todos fazem uso de fone de ouvido, 31,6% usam o fone de ouvido de 1 a 3 anos e 42,1% utilizam-no de 1 a 3 horas por dia, 52,6% dos sujeitos fazem uso de 51 a 75% da potência do aparelho e 42,1% classificam o som que ouvem como alto. As médias de limiares auditivos de via aérea apresentaram-se dentro da normalidade, porém, observou-se leve rebaixamento na frequência de 6000 Hz em relação à frequência de 4000 Hz e 8000 Hz, em ambas as orelhas. Indivíduos com zumbido apresentaram as médias de sinal/ruído de emissões otoacústicas inferiores em praticamente todas as frequências, ocorrendo diferença estatisticamente significante na frequência de 5000 Hz na orelha direita. Conclusões: Observaram-se sinais indicativos de possíveis alterações em frequências altas, que são comumente afetadas pela exposição ao ruído e música amplificada. Mesmo reconhecendo que ouvem música alta e sabendo que a mesma prejudica a audição, grande parte dos indivíduos deste estudo não está ciente de que a alteração causada pela música amplificada é irreversível.

Attentional rather than sensory differences characterize auditory processing in Williams syndrome

Individuals with Williams Syndrome (WS) exhibit an atypical auditory profile. Across two experiments, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) in a three-stimulus auditory oddball task to examine early sensory (P1, N1, P2) and later cognitive (P3a, P3b) stages of cortical auditory processing in adults with WS and age-matched typical peers. In Study 1, piano chords served as standard, target, and novel stimuli; whereas, in Study 2, a variety of non-piano sounds comprised the novel stimuli. Across both experiments, there were no group differences in the earliest stages of sensory encoding (P1, N1), along with evidence for atypically large P2 responses in participants with WS. Persons with WS exhibited larger than typical P3a responses when the novel stimuli were perceptually distinct from the standard and the target stimuli (Study 2), but not when task-relevant and -irrelevant stimuli were perceptually similar (Study 1). Further, the WS group demonstrated reduced goal-directed attention (attenuated P3b response). These group differences in ERPs were not directly related to IQ. Our results in the context of an active discrimination task point to a more complex profile of auditory processing in persons with WS than previously reported, with group differences emerging during the later stages of stimulus categorization and evaluation, but not within early stimulus detection and feature encoding.

Auditory and cognitive performance in elderly musicians and nonmusicians.

Musicians represent a model for examining brain and behavioral plasticity in terms of cognitive and auditory profile, but few studies have investigated whether elderly musicians have better auditory and cognitive abilities than nonmusicians. The aim of the present study was to examine whether being a professional musician attenuates the normal age-related changes in hearing and cognition. Elderly musicians still active in their profession were compared with nonmusicians on auditory performance (absolute threshold, frequency intensity, duration and spectral shape discrimination, gap and sinusoidal amplitude-modulation detection), and on simple (short-term memory) and more complex and higher-order (working memory [WM] and visuospatial abilities) cognitive tasks. The sample consisted of adults at least 65 years of age. The results showed that older musicians had similar absolute thresholds but better supra-threshold discrimination abilities than nonmusicians in four of the six auditory tasks administered. They also had a better WM performance, and stronger visuospatial abilities than nonmusicians. No differences were found between the two groups’ short-term memory. Frequency discrimination and gap detection for the auditory measures, and WM complex span tasks and one of the visuospatial tasks for the cognitive ones proved to be very good classifiers of the musicians. These findings suggest that life-long music training may be associated with enhanced auditory and cognitive performance, including complex cognitive skills, in advanced age. However, whether this music training represents a protective factor or not needs further investigation.

Auditory Phenotype of Smith–Magenis Syndrome

The purpose of this study was to describe the auditory phenotype of a large cohort with Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS), a rare disorder including physical anomalies, cognitive deficits, sleep disturbances, and a distinct behavioral phenotype. Hearing-related data were collected for 133 individuals with SMS aged 1-49 years. Audiogram data (97 participants) were used for cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Caregivers completed a sound sensitivity survey for 98 individuals with SMS and a control group of 24 unaffected siblings. Nearly 80% of participants with interpretable audiograms (n = 76) had hearing loss, which was typically slight to mild in degree. When hearing loss type could be determined (40 participants), sensorineural hearing loss (48.1%) occurred most often in participants aged 11-49 years. Conductive hearing loss (35.2%) was typically observed in children aged 1-10 years. A pattern of fluctuating and progressive hearing decline was documented. Hyperacusis was reported in 73.5% of participants with SMS compared with 12.5% of unaffected siblings. This study offers the most comprehensive characterization of the auditory phenotype of SMS to date. The auditory profile in SMS is multifaceted and can include a previously unreported manifestation of hyperacusis. Routine audiologic surveillance is recommended as part of standard clinical care.

Audiological Profile of Adult Persons with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorders.

Background and ObjectivesThe auditory profile of a large number of persons with late onset auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD) is recently described in the Indian context. The purpose of study was 1) to profile data on routine audiological parameters, cortical evoked potentials, and temporal processing, 2) to analyze the benefit from hearing aids for persons with ANSD, and 3) to understand the association between benefit from hearing aids and auditory profile.Subjects and MethodsThirty-eight adults with late onset ANSD and a matched group of 40 normally hearing adults participated in the study. Basic audiological tests, recording of cortical evoked potentials, and temporal processing tests were carried out on both groups of participant while only persons with ANSD were fitted with hearing aid.ResultsSubjects in the two groups were significantly different on all the audiological parameters. ANSD group seemed to benefit from hearing aids variably. The mean amplitude of N2 was significantly different between normally-hearing participants and patients with ANSD.ConclusionsResidual temporal processing, particularly amplitude modulation detection seems to be associated with benefit from hearing aids in patients with ANSD.

Perfil audiológico de idosos submetidos à reabilitação vestibular

OBJETIVO: caracterizar o perfil auditivo de idosos com tontura submetidos à Reabilitação Vestibular e comparar os resultados obtidos nas avaliações auditivas de idosos sem tontura. MÉTODOS: estudo observacional analítico transversal com 87 idosos, sendo 35 no grupo com tontura e 52 no grupo sem tontura. Foram realizadas anamnese, audiometria tonal limiar e vocal. Para a análise estatística foi utilizado o programa estatístico Statistical Package for the Social Sciences versão 17.0, com nível de significância de 5% nas análises. RESULTADOS: a perda auditiva neurossensorial de grau leve e moderada esteve presente em 72,4% da amostra, com piora dos limiares de audibilidade por via aérea a partir de 4000Hz em ambos os grupos. O zumbido foi a queixa mais frequente observada na amostra. CONCLUSÃO: o perfil auditivo de idosos com tontura não se diferencia daquele encontrado em idosos sem tontura, sendo observada com maior frequência a perda auditiva neurossensorial leve bilateral de configuração descendente.

Relations between psychophysical measures of spatial hearing and self-reported spatial-hearing abilities

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate how well the virtual psychophysical measures of spatial hearing from the preliminary auditory profile predict self-reported spatial-hearing abilities. Design: Virtual spatial-hearings tests (conducted unaided, via headphones) and a questionnaire were administered in five centres in Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. Correlations and stepwise linear regression models were calculated among a group of hearing-impaired listeners. Study sample: Thirty normal-hearing listeners aged 19–39 years, and 72 hearing-impaired listeners aged 22–91 years with a broad range of hearing losses, including asymmetrical and mixed hearing losses. Results: Several significant correlations (between 0.24 and 0.54) were found between results of virtual psychophysical spatial-hearing tests and self-reported localization abilities. Stepwise linear regression analyses showed that the minimum audible angle (MAA) test was a significant predictor for self-reported localization abilities (5% extra explained variance), and the spatial speech reception threshold (SRT) benefit test for self-reported listening to speech in spatial situations (6% extra explained variance). Conclusions: The MAA test and spatial SRT benefit test are indicative measures of everyday binaural functioning. The binaural SRT benefit test was not found to predict self-reported spatial-hearing abilities.

The correlation between central auditory processing in autistic children and their language processing abilities

AimTo study the auditory profile at different levels of the auditory system in children with ASD and to verify the role of (Central) auditory processing disorder as an essential pathology of the autistic disorder or as an associated co-morbidity, and to establish the correlation between CAP findings and the language delay in these cases. PatientsThe study included 30 children with definite autistic disorder according to DSM-IV-TR criteria and ADI-R among those attending the outpatient neuropsychiatry clinic of Alexandria University Children Hospital at El Shatby. An informed consent was taken from all patients in this part of the study. Confidentiality of the records was maintained. MethodsAll cases were subjected to complete history taking and examination; special assessment to language skills and evoked potentials were done. ResultsThe results concluded that (central) auditory processing disorder is an essential pathology of the autistic disorder. Autistic children possess a dysfunctioning or an immature central auditory nervous system at both the brainstem and cortical levels.