Central auditory processing in children after traumatic brain injury

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.