Central auditory processing assessment.

Abstract

As the acoustic information travels within the central auditory nervous system, the processing of the signal undergoes several levels of serial and parallel "bottom-up" processing influenced by high level cognitive "top-down" processes. Because the multiple location of the operational sites, the central auditory deficits are frequently quite subtle and need a test battery approach to be identified. Each of the four principal processes has at least to be tested: the closure task, the dichotic ability, the temporal ordering task and the binaural interaction function. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of the psychoacoustic test procedures of identifying lesions or dysfunction's in the central auditory system.