Most diagnoses of hearing loss focus on the audiogram, which is not sensitive to dysfunction at many of the additional processing stages associated with auditory perception. For example, recent data from many laboratories, including our own, have shown clear auditory processing deficits both in older listeners and in patients who have suffered traumatic brain injury, despite normal audiograms. Modern auditory neuroscience, computational modeling, and psychoacoustics have provided great insight into the information processing that underlies auditory perception and have identified specific stimuli and tasks for the evaluation of central auditory function, but this information has largely remained in the laboratory. It is the goal of this proposal to develop and evaluate a set of clinicl tests that draw upon modern laboratory tests and theories of auditory system function. These will form the basis of a new clinical test battery for central auditory dysfunction that will suppot the accurate diagnosis of a much wider range of the difficulties that can lead to auditory complaints.
Most diagnoses of hearing loss focus on the audiogram, which ignores the potential for auditory dysfunction in the presence of audiometrically normal hearing. Similarly, we currently have no way of capturing the substantial variability in suprathreshold performance found among those with similar audiograms. This proposal will develop and evaluate a new clinical test battery for central auditory dysfunction that will support the accurate diagnosis of the full range of difficulties experienced by those with auditory complaints.
