Central auditory processing disorders and their relations to the localisation of lesion

Overview

The most common type of hearing loss is sensorineural, which is characterized by a permanent increase of hearing thresholds. Recently, an increasing number of people suffer also from central auditory processing disorders, in which pure tone auditory thresholds are normal but patients report subjective hearing impairment, especially of speech perception in noise. These difficulties are caused by a variety of reasons, including stroke, neurodegenerative diseases, neuroinfections and others. Pathologies can occur anywhere along the auditory pathway and cortex, and the clinical symptomatology varies according to the location of the pathology. To properly diagnose the cause of these symptoms, it is often necessary to use detailed audiometric examination, including special audiological tests, examination of acoustically evoked potentials or imaging methods, with magnetic resonance imaging at the forefront. Therapy depends on the location and cause of the pathology and auditory rehabilitation is its most commonly used part.

Keywords:

Cognition – Auditory pathway – Auditory cortex – magnetic resonance imaging – evoked potentials – central auditory processing disorder