Auditory processing abilities in amateur musicians

Evaluation of central auditory processing in children with developmental dyslexia.

Effects of otitis media with effusion on auditory temporal resolution

Voice Quality and Auditory Processing in Subjects with and Without Musical Experience

Hearing loss and age interfere with the auditory system's ability to process temporal changes in the acoustic signal. A key unresolved question is whether high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss (HFSNHL) affects temporal processing in the low-frequency region where hearing loss is minimal or nonexistent. A second unresolved question is whether changes in hearing occur in middle-aged subjects in the absence of HFSNHL. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to examine the influence of HFSNHL and aging on the auditory temporal processing abilities of low-frequency auditory channels with normal hearing sensitivity and (2) to examine the relations among gap detection measures, self-assessment reports of understanding speech, and functional measures of speech perception in middle-aged individuals with and without HFSNHL. The subject groups were matched for either age (middle age) or pure-tone sensitivity (with or without hearing loss) to study the effects of age and HFSNHL on behavioral and functional measures of temporal processing and word recognition performance. These effects were analyzed by individual repeated-measures analyses of variance. Post hoc analyses were performed for each significant main effect and interaction. The relationships among the measures were analyzed with Pearson correlations. Eleven normal-hearing young adults (YNH), eight normal-hearing middle-aged adults (MANH), and nine middle-aged adults with HFSNHL were recruited for this study. Normal hearing sensitivity was defined as pure-tone thresholds ≤25 dB HL for octave frequencies from 250 to 8000 Hz. HFSNHL was defined as pure-tone thresholds ≤25 dB HL from 250 to 2000 Hz and ≥35 dB HL from 3000 to 8000 Hz. Gap detection thresholds (GDTs) were measured under within-channel and between-channel conditions with the stimulus spectrum limited to regions of normal hearing sensitivity for the HFSNHL group (i.e., <2000 Hz). Self-perceived hearing problems were measured by a questionnaire (Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit), and word recognition performance was assessed under four conditions: quiet and babble, with and without low-pass filtering (cutoff frequency = 2000 Hz). The effects of HFSNHL and age were found for gap detection, self-perceived hearing problems, and word recognition in noise. The presence of HFSNHL significantly increased GDTs for stimuli presented in regions of normal pure-tone sensitivity. In addition, middle-aged subjects with normal hearing sensitivity reported significantly more problems hearing in background noise than the young normal-hearing subjects. Significant relationships between self-report measures of hearing ability in background noise and word recognition in babble were found. The conclusions from the present study are twofold: (1) HFSNHL may have an off-channel impact on auditory temporal processing, and (2) presenescent changes in the auditory system of MANH subjects increased self-perceived problems hearing in background noise and decreased functional performance in background noise compared with YNH subjects.

Listening with one hemisphere: A review of auditory processing among individuals after hemispheric surgery

A popular hypothesis holds that specific reading disability (SRD) and specific language impairment (SLI) result from an impaired ability to process rapid and brief sounds. However, the results of experiments that have tested this hypothesis are incongruous. A number of factors could explain these contradictory findings, including the questionable reliability and validity of rapid auditory processing tasks, individual differences in the auditory processing abilities of SRD and SLI populations, the age of listeners, the quality of control groups, and the relationship between verbal and non-verbal auditory processing abilities. These issues highlight the need for future studies to (1) establish the reliability and validity of psychophysical tasks used to assess rapid auditory processing; (2) report the rapid auditory processing scores of individuals rather than just group means; (3) include a wide range of reading and spoken language tests to determine the literacy and oral language profile of people who demonstrate an auditory processing deficit; (4) include clinical comparison groups to determine whether a rapid auditory processing deficit is related specifically to written and spoken language impairments; and (5) examine the relationship between low-level non-verbal, verbal, and phonological processing abilities.

Introduction Stuttering is a human communication disorder characterized by involuntary interruptions to speech flow. Electrophysiological tests and behavioral evaluations allow the neuroaudiological processes involved in stuttering to be investigated. Objective To investigate group differences in the central auditory system using long-latency auditory evoked potentials, cognitive potentials, and behavioral assessments in children who stutter and compare them with fluent children. Methods We assessed 18 children with stuttering and compared them with a control group of 18 children without speech or language impairment. All children were evaluated with pure tone and speech audiometry, acoustic immittance measures, brainstem auditory evoked potentials, long latency auditory evoked potentials, cognitive potentials, and behavioral tests of auditory processing - Random Gap Detection Test (RGDT), Dichotic Digit Test (DDT); Duration Pattern Test (DPT); Pediatric Speech Intelligibility (PSI); and Masking Level Difference (MLD). The Scale of Auditory Behaviors (SAB) questionnaire was also applied. Results Children who stuttered had longer latencies of the P2 and P3 waves compared with the fluent group. There was no difference in P2 amplitudes, but there was a smaller P3 amplitude in children who stuttered, and they also showed significant alterations in the DDT and DPT. Furthermore, an association was found between increased P2 and P3 latency and SAB scores. Conclusion The present study indicates that children who stutter tend to have decreased auditory ability in terms of central auditory processing, and this shows up psychophysically and on the SAB questionnaire.

Auditory processing is the analysis of sounds' attributions such as localization, lateralization, temporality, frequency, loudness, phase, auditory memory and auditory attention through primer and secondar central auditory paths. This study aims to show that music contributes on auditory processing by applying central auditory tests on two groups who are musicians and nonmusicians. The participants in this study are aged between 20 and 40. The mean age of the musician participants is 24.40±3.811, when the mean age of non-musician participants is 26.07±4.525. Each group has 30 participants. All participants got examined for otorhinolaryngology and they were tested for pure tone audiometry and immitansmetric measurement. For musician participants, this study included people who have professional music career for at least 5 years and for non-musician participants, it has been included those who are capable of normal hearing. All participants tested for Frequency Patterns Test (FPT), Duration Patterns Test (DPT), Random Gap Detection Test (RGDT) and Staggered Spondaic Word Test (SSWT). The results of the FPT, DPT, RGDT and SSWT tests applied to musician and non-musician participants indicate that there is a statistical significance on auditory processing between these two groups (p<0.05). It is founded that there is a considerable difference as a result of statistical significance between the tests from right to left and from left to right (p<0.05). In addition, it is founded that musician participants have much more comprehension ability in the tests from left to right than the tests from right to lefts. This study indicates that people who are interested in music professionally have developed auditory processing skills and senses than people who does not show any professional interest in music.

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.

Neural processing of speech in noise recognition in preschool children with different auditory processing abilities: a fNIRS study.

IntroductionAuditory processing disorder (APD) arises from dysfunctions within the central auditory nervous system (CANS). One key tool for assessing temporal auditory processing capabilities is the Gaps-In-Noise (GIN) test. While the GIN test serves as a critical tool, its accuracy may be influenced by linguistic factors. This research aims to establish preliminary normative data for the GIN test among young adult native Thai speakers and to compare potential performance differences across ears and various linguistic backgrounds.MethodsThis study included 52 native Thai speakers aged 18 to 25, all of whom had normal hearing confirmed through pure-tone audiometry, to examine auditory processing using the GIN test. The testing was conducted in an anechoic chamber to ensure standardized conditions. The results were analyzed based on the approximate gap-detection threshold (A.th.) value and the overall percent correct (OPC) value metrics.ResultsThe study revealed that, among young adult native Thai speakers, the A.th. values were 5.12–0.81 milliseconds (ms.) in the right ear, 5.08–0.81 ms. in the left ear, and 5.04–0.68 ms. for both ears. The corresponding averages of OPC values were 69.94–7.66% for the right ear, 71.37–7.21% for the left ear, and 71.35–6.72% for both ears, respectively. While no significant differences were observed in the threshold between ears, a notable discrepancy in response accuracy was noted, with the right ear showing lower accuracy than the left ear. Significant differences were also found when compared to English, Korean, and Portuguese language users, but not when compared to Polish language users.ConclusionThe study revealed comparable temporal processing abilities among young adult native Thai speakers, as indicated by similar A.th. values across both ears. However, differences in the OPC value responses suggest potential asymmetries in auditory processing mechanisms. Additionally, linguistic factors appeared to influence the outcomes, as evidenced by variations in the A.th. values between Thai speakers and individuals from other linguistic backgrounds. These findings underscore the importance of incorporating language-specific norms when assessing the APD.

The core cognitive difficulty in developmental dyslexia involves phonological processing, but adults and children with dyslexia also have sensory impairments. Impairments in basic auditory processing show particular links with phonological impairments, and recent studies with dyslexic children across languages reveal a relationship between auditory temporal processing and sensitivity to rhythmic timing and speech rhythm. As rhythm is explicit in music, musical training might have a beneficial effect on the auditory perception of acoustic cues to rhythm in dyslexia. Here we took advantage of the presence of musicians with and without dyslexia in musical conservatoires, comparing their auditory temporal processing abilities with those of dyslexic non-musicians matched for cognitive ability. Musicians with dyslexia showed equivalent auditory sensitivity to musicians without dyslexia and also showed equivalent rhythm perception. The data support the view that extensive rhythmic experience initiated during childhood (here in the form of music training) can affect basic auditory processing skills which are found to be deficient in individuals with dyslexia.

There is a general consensus that many children and adults with dyslexia and/or specific language impairment display deficits in auditory processing. However, how these deficits are related to developmental disorders of language is uncertain, and at least four categories of model have been proposed: single distal cause models, risk factor models, association models, and consequence models. This study used children with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MMHL) to investigate the link between auditory processing deficits and language disorders. We examined the auditory processing and language skills of 46, 8–16 year-old children with MMHL and 44 age-matched typically developing controls. Auditory processing abilities were assessed using child-friendly psychophysical techniques in order to obtain discrimination thresholds. Stimuli incorporated three different timescales (µs, ms, s) and three different levels of complexity (simple nonspeech tones, complex nonspeech sounds, speech sounds), and tasks required discrimination of frequency or amplitude cues. Language abilities were assessed using a battery of standardised assessments of phonological processing, reading, vocabulary, and grammar. We found evidence that three different auditory processing abilities showed different relationships with language: Deficits in a general auditory processing component were necessary but not sufficient for language difficulties, and were consistent with a risk factor model; Deficits in slow-rate amplitude modulation (envelope) detection were sufficient but not necessary for language difficulties, and were consistent with either a single distal cause or a consequence model; And deficits in the discrimination of a single speech contrast (/bɑ/ vs /dɑ/) were neither necessary nor sufficient for language difficulties, and were consistent with an association model. Our findings suggest that different auditory processing deficits may constitute distinct and independent routes to the development of language difficulties in children.

Background. Understanding the factors that influence language recovery in aphasia is important for improving prognosis and treatment. Chronic comprehension impairments in Wernicke’s aphasia (WA) are associated with impairments in auditory and phonological processing, compounded by semantic and executive difficulties. This study investigated whether the recovery of auditory, phonological, semantic, or executive factors underpins the recovery from WA comprehension impairments by charting changes in the neuropsychological profile from the subacute to the chronic phase. Method. This study used a prospective, longitudinal observational design. Twelve WA participants with superior temporal lobe lesions were recruited 2 months post–stroke onset (2 MPO). Language comprehension was measured alongside a neuropsychological profile of auditory, phonological, and semantic processing and phonological short-term memory and nonverbal reasoning at 3 poststroke time points: 2.5, 5, and 9 MPO. Results. Language comprehension displayed a strong and consistent recovery between 2.5 and 9 MPO. Improvements were also seen for slow auditory temporal processing, phonological short-term memory, and semantic processing but not for rapid auditory temporal, spectrotemporal, and phonological processing. Despite their lack of improvement, rapid auditory temporal processing at 2.5 MPO and phonological processing at 5 MPO predicated comprehension outcomes at 9 MPO. Conclusions. These results indicate that recovery of language comprehension in WA can be predicted from fixed auditory processing in the subacute stage. This suggests that speech comprehension recovery in WA results from reorganization of the remaining language comprehension network to enable the residual speech signal to be processed more efficiently, rather than partial recovery of underlying auditory, phonological, or semantic processing abilities.

This study investigated the self-reported listening abilities of older adults with clinically normal hearing and examined the role of auditory processing abilities and extended high-frequency thresholds in perceived challenges. This cross-sectional study used self-report questionnaires and objective measures, such as the dichotic digit test, gaps-in-noise test, and extended high-frequency audiometry. Fifty adults, including 25 younger adults (<30 years) and 25 older adults (≥50 years) with normal hearing thresholds, were included. Older adults reported significantly more difficulties in spatial hearing, intelligibility in quiet and sound identification tasks compared to younger adults. Objective assessments revealed deficits in temporal resolution, binaural separation, and extended high-frequency thresholds in older individuals. Significant correlations were observed between extended high-frequency thresholds and auditory processing abilities. However, no correlation was found between extended high-frequency thresholds and self-reported listening difficulties. Older adults with clinically normal hearing reported more listening difficulties and performed worse in auditory processing tasks than younger adults. Extended high-frequency thresholds were correlated with auditory processing abilities but not with self-reported difficulties. These findings indicate a relationship between age-related auditory changes and perceived listening difficulties, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive auditory assessment in older adults.