Verbal tests of central audition.
The use of sensitized verbal tests in the diagnosis of central deafness is critically reviewed. The concept of intrinsic (neural) redundancy is the main point in the operational model; different modalities of coupling between intrinsic and extrinsic redundancy bring forth different patterns of intelligibility. The age of the subject thus becomes critical; on the contrary, the influence of the IQ can be minimized by carefully selecting the tests. These can be divided into monaural and dichotic; among the latter, only the tests involving competing information are of value, whilst the so-called summation tests should now be disregarded. The clinical results are only briefly quoted, since they are well-known. The contribution to the advances in neurophysiology seems to be more interesting. The influence of reticular formation on auditory stimulation, the crossing of the auditory pathways, the existence of a secondary auditory area have been psychoacoustically confirmed by the use of the monaural tests. In their turn, the dichotic competing message tests have enabled a beautiful model of language perception to be drawn, and have definitely demonstrated the so-called hemispheric specialization (or dominance) for verbal and nonverbal messages.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D003638:Deafness / Q000175:diagnosis; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D014705:Verbal Behavior
Epreuves verbales de l'audition centrale