The threshold-of-interference test: a new test of interhemispheric suppression in brain injury

A new procedural version of the Willeford competing sentences test (Willeford. Audiol Hear Educ 1976;2:12-20) is introduced here for use with brain damaged patients. The threshold-of-interference test seeks the minimal level of the competing sentences at which the patient can no longer repeat the message at the test ear. Findings are reported for normal controls and for brain damaged adults, with clinical data and computerized axial tomography scan evidence. The threshold-of-interference test appears to be efficient, quick in administration, and particularly useful in exposing auditory processing anomalies, especially in right hemisphere damage.