Explore the vast range of titles available.

Auditory processing disorder (APD) may attribute to certain speech problems, as auditory processing plays a vital role in phonetic development during childhood. This research investigates the incidence of APD in individuals with misarticulations of the /r/, /s/, /k/, /θ/, /dʒ/, and /q/ speech sounds. These sounds represent different places of articulation, manners of articulation, and phonation. A total of 51 participants with articulation disorders aged 6-18 years underwent conventional peripheral assessments, including otoscopic examination, immittance measurement, and audiometry. Central auditory processing was also evaluated using a battery developed by Frank Musiek. Central auditory processing evaluations revealed abnormalities in 37 of 51 participants (72.55%). Correlations between various sound misarticulations and APD were identified: 69.5% for /r/, 40% for /s/, 80% for /k/, 100% for /θ/ and /q/, and 83.3% for /ʤ/. The correlation between articulation disorders and APD varies depending on the specific sound affected. Further research is needed to establish clearer associations between different articulation disorders and APD. These findings underscore the importance of assessing central auditory system function in patients with articulation disorders before initiating speech therapy.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is diverse, manifesting in a wide array of phenotypes. However, a consistent theme is reduced communicative and social abilities. Auditory processing deficits have been shown in individuals with ASD—these deficits may play a role in the communication difficulties ASD individuals experience. Specifically, children with ASD have delayed neural timing and poorer tracking of a changing pitch relative to their typically developing peers. Given that accurate processing of sound requires highly coordinated and consistent neural activity, we hypothesized that these auditory processing deficits stem from a failure to respond to sound in a consistent manner. Therefore, we predicted that individuals with ASD have reduced neural stability in response to sound. We recorded the frequency-following response (FFR), an evoked response that mirrors the acoustic features of its stimulus, of high-functioning children with ASD age 7–13 years. Evident across multiple speech stimuli, children with ASD have less stable FFRs to speech sounds relative to their typically developing peers. This reduced auditory stability could contribute to the language and communication profiles observed in individuals with ASD.

Auditory system plasticity is a promising target for neuromodulation, cognitive rehabilitation and therapeutic development in schizophrenia (SZ). Auditory-based targeted cognitive training (TCT) is a 'bottom up' intervention designed to enhance the speed and accuracy of auditory information processing, which has been shown to improve neurocognition in certain SZ patients. However, the dynamics of TCT learning as a function of training exercises and their impact on neurocognitive functioning and therapeutic outcomes are unknown. Forty subjects (SZ, = 21; healthy subjects (HS), = 19) underwent comprehensive clinical, cognitive, and auditory assessments, including measurements of auditory processing speed (APS) at baseline and after 1-h of TCT. SZ patients additionally completed 30-hours of TCT and repeated assessments ~10-12 weeks later. SZ patients were deficient in APS at baseline ( = 0.96, < 0.005) relative to HS. After 1-h of TCT, analyses revealed significant main effects of diagnosis ( = 1.75, = 0.002) and time ( = 1.04, < 0.001), and a × interaction ( = 0.85, = 0.02) on APS. APS learning effects were robust after 1-h in SZ patients ( = 1.47, < 0.001) and persisted throughout the 30-h of training. Baseline APS was associated with verbal learning gains after 30-h of TCT ( = 0.51, = 0.02) in SZ. TCT learning metrics may have prognostic utility and aid in the prospective identification of individuals likely to benefit from TCT. Future experimental medicine studies may advance predictive algorithms that enhance TCT-related clinical, cognitive and functional outcomes.

This study investigated whether individuals with high autistic traits rely on psychoacoustic abilities in affective prosody recognition (APR). In 94 college students, Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) and psychoacoustic abilities were measured. Results indicated that higher AQ, higher rapid auditory processing (RAP), and maleness were associated with a lower APR accuracy for low-intensity prosodies. There was a strong positive association between RAP and APR for participants with high AQ, whereas low-AQ participants showed no such pattern. The findings suggest a reliance on psychoacoustic abilities as compensatory mechanism for deficits in higher-order processing of emotional signals in social interactions, and imply potential benefits of auditory interventions in improving APR among individuals with high autistic traits.

Purpose: To quantify how 9 different diagnostic criteria affected potential (central) auditory processing disorder ([C]APD) diagnoses in a large sample of children referred for (central) auditory processing ([C]AP) assessment. Method: A file review was conducted on 150 children (94 boys and 56 girls; ages 7.0-15.6 years) with normal peripheral hearing who had completed a (C)AP assessment involving low-pass filtered speech, competing sentences, 2-pair dichotic digits, and frequency patterns with linguistic and nonlinguistic report. Each child was classified as having or not having (C)APD based on 9 different sets of diagnostic criteria drawn from published technical reports, position statements, and selected research. Results: The rates of potential (C)APD diagnosis ranged from 7.3% for the strictest criteria to 96.0% for the most lenient criteria. Conclusions: Until greater consensus is reached, any diagnosis of (C)APD should be qualified by an explicit statement of the criteria used. Calls to abandon the use of (C)APD as a global label should also be supported.

Age-related hearing loss (ARHL), also called presbycusis, is a progressive disorder affecting hearing functions and among the elderly has been recognized as the third most frequent condition. Among ARHL components, the age-related central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) refers to changes in the auditory network, negatively impacting auditory perception and/or the speech communication performance. The relationship between auditory-perception and speech communication difficulties in age-related CAPD is difficult to establish, mainly because many older subjects have concomitant peripheral ARHL and age-related cognitive changes. In the last two decades, the association between cognitive impairment and ARHL has received great attention. Peripheral ARHL has recently been defined as the modifiable risk factor with the greatest impact on the development of dementia. Even if very few studies have analyzed the relationship between cognitive decline and age-related CAPD, a strong association was highlighted. Therefore, age-related CAPD could be a specific process related to neurodegeneration. Since these two disorders can be concomitant, drawing causal inferences is difficult. The assumption that ARHL, particularly age-related CAPD, may increase the risk of cognitive impairment in the elderly remains unchallenged. This review aims to summarize the evidence of associations between age-related CAPD and cognitive disorders and to define the diagnostic procedure of CAPD in the elderly. Finally, we highlight the importance of tailoring the rehabilitation strategy to this relationship. Future longitudinal studies with larger sample sizes and the use of adequate assessment tools that can disentangle cognitive dysfunction from sensory impairments are warranted.

Andrea S. Kelly University of Auckland Contact author: Mridula Sharma, Macquarie University–Linguistics, Building C5, Room 513, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales 2106, Australia. E-mail: mridula.sharma{at}ling.mq.edu.au . Purpose: The authors assessed comorbidity of auditory processing disorder (APD), language impairment (LI), and reading disorder (RD) in school-age children. Method: Children ( N = 68) with suspected APD and nonverbal IQ standard scores of 80 or more were assessed using auditory, language, reading, attention, and memory measures. Auditory processing tests included the Frequency Pattern Test (FPT; F. E. Musiek, 1994; D. Noffsinger, R. H. Wilson, & F. E. Musiek, 1994); the Dichotic Digit Test Version 2 (DDT; F. E. Musiek, 1983); the Random Gap Detection Test (R. W. Keith, 2000); the 500-Hz tone Masking Level Difference (V. Aithal, A. Yonovitz, & S. Aithal, 2006); and a monaural low-redundancy speech test (compressed and reverberant words; A. Boothroyd & S. Nittrouer, 1988). The Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals, Fourth Edition (E. Semel, E. Wiig, & W. Secord, 2003) was used to assess language abilities (including auditory memory). Reading accuracy and fluency and phonological awareness abilities were assessed using the Wheldall Assessment of Reading Passages (A. Madelaine & K. Wheldall, 2002) and the Queensland University Inventory of Literacy (B. Dodd, A. Holm, M. Orelemans, & M. McCormick, 1996). Attention was measured using the Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (J. A. Sandford & A. Turner, 1995). Results: Of the children, 72% had APD on the basis of these test results. Most of these children (25%) had difficulty with the FPT bilaterally. A further 22% had difficulty with the FPT bilaterally and had right ear deficits for the DDT. About half of the children (47%) had problems in all 3 areas (APD, LI, and RD); these children had the poorest FPT scores. More had APD–RD, or APD–LI, than APD, RD, or LI alone. There were modest correlations between FPT scores and attention and memory, and between DDT scores and memory. Conclusions: LI and RD commonly co-occur with APD. Attention and memory are linked to performance on some auditory processing tasks but only explain a small amount of the variance in scores. Comprehensive assessment across a range of areas is required to characterize the difficulties experienced by children with APD. KEY WORDS: auditory processing disorder, language processing disorder, reading disorder, Children's Auditory Processing Performance Scale (CHAPPS), attention, memory CiteULike     Connotea     Del.icio.us     Digg     Facebook     Reddit     Technorati     Twitter     What's this?

Auditory processing is the process of decoding an auditory stimulus along the hearing pathways in the central nervous system. Children with auditory processing difficulties face challenges in the transmission, processing, organisation, and use of auditory information. This affects their spoken language, reading abilities, writing acquisition, and academic achievements. The aim of this study was to assess the auditory processing abilities of school-aged children from the region of Vojvodina using the Battery test for Auditory Processing Disorders PSP1 (Heđever, 2017). This study also aimed to examine the influence of age, gender, and school success on auditory processing abilities in school-aged children. The study sample consisted of 162 children between the ages of 6.7 and 11.6 years. The PSP-1 test battery consists of 4 subtests: filtered words test, speech-in-noise test, dichotic word test, and dichotic sentence test. Results have shown that 8 (4.94%) respondents on the PSP1 test achieved below average results, indicating auditory processing difficulties. Among these respondents, two were female (1.24%) and six were male (3.70%). Four respondents (2.48%) belonged to the second age group (from 7.7 to 8.6 years) and two respondents (1.24%) belonged to the first (from 6.7 to 7.6 years) and the fourth age group (from 9.7 to 10.6 years) each. Statistically significant differences were observed in the auditory processing abilities of the respondents in relation to their age (p < 0.001) and gender (p < 0.05). Girls had significantly better results on the total score of the PSP1 test, as well as in two subtests: the filtered words test and the dichotic word test. In addition, there was a statistically significant correlation between auditory processing abilities and school success.

Research using latent variable models demonstrates that pre-attentive measures of early auditory processing (EAP) and cognition may initiate a cascading effect on daily functioning in schizophrenia. However, such models fail to account for relationships among individual measures of cognition and EAP, thereby limiting their utility. Hence, EAP and cognition may function as complementary and interacting measures of brain function rather than independent stages of information processing. Here, we apply a data-driven approach to identifying directional relationships among neurophysiologic and cognitive variables. Using data from the Consortium on the Genetics of Schizophrenia 2, we estimated Gaussian Graphical Models and Bayesian networks to examine undirected and directed connections between measures of EAP, including mismatch negativity and P3a, and cognition in 663 outpatients with schizophrenia and 630 control participants. Chain structures emerged among EAP and attention/vigilance measures in schizophrenia and control groups. Concerning differences between the groups, object memory was an influential variable in schizophrenia upon which other cognitive domains depended, and working memory was an influential variable in controls. Measures of EAP and attention/vigilance are conditionally independent of other cognitive domains that were used in this study. Findings also revealed additional causal assumptions among measures of cognition that could help guide statistical control and ultimately help identify early-stage targets or surrogate endpoints in schizophrenia.

Auditory 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. This 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. The 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. The 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.