PSYCHOACOUSTICAL DEFICITS RELATED TO BILATERAL SUBCORTICAL HEMORRHAGES - A CASE WITH APPERCEPTIVE AUDITORY AGNOSIA

We report a case of acute deafness secondary to bilateral hemorrhages involving the external capsule and extending to both temporal isthmi. The lesions probably disrupted both auditory radiations. Deafness disa ppeared within 2 weeks leading to a transient auditory agnosia for env ironmental and verbal sounds. Performance on audiological and neurolin guistic tests were consistent with the hypothesis of a deficit of non specific auditory processes. Psycoacoustical deficits related to subco rtical lesions are very rare and might differ from those due to cortic al lesions by the lack of aphasia. The present case and both previous cases with subcortical lesions might suffer from auditory agnosia of a pperceptive type. Its characterics and the role of non-specific audito ry processes are discussed using the data obtained from this third cas e.