Temporal and speech processing deficits in auditory neuropathy

AUDITORY neuropathy affects the normal synchronous activity in the auditory nerve, without affecting the amplification function in the inner ear. Pati ents with auditory neuropathy often complain that they can hear sounds, but cannot understand speech. Here we report psychophysical tests indicating t hat these patients' poor speech recognition is due to a severe impairment i n their temporal processing abilities. We also simulate this temporal proce ssing impairment in normally hearing listeners and produce similar speech r ecognition deficits. This study demonstrates the importance of neural synch rony for auditory perceptions including speech recognition in humans. The r esults should contribute to better diagnosis and treatment of auditory neur opathy. NeuroReport 10:3429-3435 (C) 1999 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.