A New Test Sheds Light on Auditory Processing Disorders

摘要

Difficulty hearing in noise affects approximately 10 percent of patients seeking audiology services. (Ear Hear 1989; 10 [3]:200.) Researchers and audiologists have struggled to define and replicate this problem clinically and have had difficulty in determining the type of stimuli, noise, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that best imitates real-life situations. Attention, cognition, and language are also a hindrance. The complexity of our central auditory system and an attempt to determine the sites responsible for such processing also provide complications. The test Listening in Spatialized Noise-Sentences (LiSN-S) recently developed by Australian researchers may have sparkedrenewed interest in tackling this challenging task. (J Am Acad Audiol 2008;19 [5]:377.)