title: Attention, memory, and auditory processing in 10- to 15-year-old children with listening difficulties.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to examine attention, memory, and auditory processing in children with reported listening difficulty in noise (LDN) despite having clinically normal hearing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-one children with LDN and 15 children with no listening concerns (controls) participated. The clinically normed auditory processing tests included the Frequency/Pitch Pattern Test (FPT; Musiek, 2002), the Dichotic Digits Test (Musiek, 1983), the Listening in Spatialized Noise-Sentences (LiSN-S) test (Dillon, Cameron, Glyde, Wilson, & Tomlin, 2012), gap detection in noise (Baker, Jayewardene, Sayle, & Saeed, 2008), and masking level difference (MLD; Wilson, Moncrieff, Townsend, & Pillion, 2003). Also included were research-based psychoacoustic tasks, such as auditory stream segregation, localization, sinusoidal amplitude modulation (SAM), and fine structure perception. All were also evaluated on attention and memory test batteries.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The LDN group was significantly slower switching their auditory attention and had poorer inhibitory control. Additionally, the group mean results showed significantly poorer performance on FPT, MLD, 4-Hz SAM, and memory tests. Close inspection of the individual data revealed that only 5 participants (out of 21) in the LDN group showed significantly poor performance on FPT compared with clinical norms. Further testing revealed the frequency discrimination of these 5 children to be significantly impaired.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, the LDN group showed deficits in attention switching and inhibitory control, whereas only a subset of these participants demonstrated an additional frequency resolution deficit.
authors.forename: Mridula
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Imran
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dhamani
authors.forename: Johahn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carlile
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001308:Auditory Perceptual Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D005260:Female; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009622:Noise; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio