CENTRAL AUDITORY-SYSTEM PLASTICITY ASSOCIATED WITH SPEECH-DISCRIMINATION TRAINING

A passively elicited cortical potential that reflects the brain's disc rimination of small acoustic contrasts was measured in response to two slightly different speech stimuli in adult human subjects. Behavioral training in the discrimination of those speech stimuli resulted in a significant change in the duration and magnitude of the cortical poten tial. The results demonstrate that listening training can change the n europhysiologic responses of the central auditory system to just-perce ptible differences in speech.