title: [Assessment of two central auditory tests in elderly patients without hearing complaints].
abstract: Speech understanding disorders in the elderly may be due to peripheral or central auditory dysfunctions. Asymmetry of results in dichotic testing increases with age, and may reflect on a lack of inter-hemisphere transmission and cognitive decline.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate auditory processing of aged people with no hearing complaints.
  
  
  METHODS
  clinical prospective.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-two voluntary individuals, aged between 55 and 75 years, were evaluated. They reported no hearing complaints and had maximal auditory thresholds of 40 dB HL until 4 KHz, 80% of minimal speech recognition scores and peripheral symmetry between the ears. We used two kinds of tests: speech in noise and dichotic alternated dissyllables (SSW). Results were compared between males and females, right and left ears and between age groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no significant differences between genders, in both tests. Their Left ears showed worse results, in the competitive condition of SSW. Individuals aged 65 or older had poorer performances than those aged 55 to 64.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Central auditory tests showed worse performance with aging. The employment of a dichotic test in the auditory evaluation setting in the elderly may help in the early identification of degenerative processes, which are common among these patients.
authors.affiliation: Educação Especial pela UFSCar, doutoranda do Dep. ORL da USP-Campus Ribeirão Preto, SP.
authors.forename: Alina Sanches
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Gonçales
authors.forename: Maria Cristina Lancia
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Cury
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001308:Auditory Perceptual Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003072:Cognition Disorders; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests / Q000379:methods*