Abstract
Introduction:
Traumatic brain injury can impair the central auditory pathways and auditory cortex. Hence, individuals who suffered a traumatic brain injury may be at risk of central auditory processing disorders, which can be identified with behavioral tests that assess central auditory function.
Objective:
To characterize and compare the performance of children and adolescents with and without a history of traumatic brain injury in behavioral tests that assess central auditory processing.
Method:
The sample comprised 8- to 18-year-old individuals of both sexes who suffered moderate or severe closed traumatic brain injury 3 to 24 months before their participation in the study and whose hearing thresholds were normal. These individuals were matched for sex and age with other subjects without a history of traumatic brain injury and submitted to behavioral assessment of the central auditory processing with special tests to assess hearing skills (namely, auditory closure, figure-ground, and temporal processing), selected according to their chronological age and response-ability.
Results:
The study group performed statistically worse than the comparison group in auditory closure, figure-ground in verbal dichotic listening, and temporal ordering. The central auditory processing tests with abnormal results in the comparison group were different from those in the study group.
Conclusion:
Central auditory processing disorders were identified in all subjects of the study group, especially involving auditory closure and temporal processing skills, in comparison with subjects without a history of traumatic brain injury.
Keywords:
Hearing; Auditory perceptual disorders; Traumatic brain injury; Child; Hearing tests
HIGHLIGHTS
Central auditory processing disorder was detected in all the individuals in the study group.
The study group had worse performance with a statistically significant difference.
The changes especially are in auditory closure and temporal processing as compared to the control group.
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