Consequences of neural asynchrony: A case of auditory neuropathy

The neural representation of sensory events depends upon neural synchrony. Auditory neuropathy, a disorder of stimulus-timing-related neural synchrony , provides a model for studying the role of synchrony in auditory perceptio n. This article presents electrophysiological and behavioral data from a ra re case of auditory neuropathy in a woman with normal hearing thresholds, m aking it possible to separate audibility from neuropathy. The experimental results, which encompass a wide range of auditory perceptual abilities and neurophysiologic responses to sound, provide new information linking neural synchrony with auditory perception. Findings illustrate that optimal eight h nerve and auditory brainstem synchrony do not appear to be essential for understanding speech in quiet listening situations. However, synchrony is c ritical for understanding speech in the presence of noise.