Assessment of Peripheral and Central Auditory Processing after Treatment for Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Abstract

Introduction When cases of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) are treated successfully, most clinicians assume the normality and symmetry of the auditory processing. This assumption is based on the recovery of the detection ability on the part of the patients, but the auditory processing involves much more than detection alone. Since certain studies have suggested a possible involvement of the central auditory system during the acute phase of sudden hearing loss, the present study hypothesized that auditory processing would be asymmetric in people who have experienced sudden hearing loss.

Keywords

• sudden hearing loss
• otoacoustic emission
• evoked potentials
• pitch perception
• just-noticeable differences