Perception of dynamic acoustic patterns by an individual with unilateral verbal auditory agnosia

Previous studies have found that subjects diagnosed with verbal auditory ag nosia (VAA) from bilateral brain Lesions may experience difficulties at the prephonemic level of acoustic processing. In this case study. we administe red a series of speech and nonspech discrimination tests to an individual w ith unilateral VAA as a result of left-temporal-lobe damage. The results in dicated that the subject's ability to perceive steady-state acoustic stimul i was relatively intact but his ability to perceive dynamic stimuli was dra stically reduced. We conclude that this particular aspect of acoustic proce ssing may be a major contributing factor that disables speech perception in subjects with unilateral VAA. (C) 2000 Academic Press.