Unilateral Auditory Temporal Resolution Deficit: A Case Study

Abstract

An adult with a unilateral precipitous severe high-frequency hearing loss displayed a selective auditory temporal resolution deficit in the poorer ear despite excellent word recognition ability in quiet bilaterally. Word recognition performance was inferior in interrupted noise, reverberation, and time-compression conditions when stimuli were presented to the hearing-impaired ear and compared with performance for stimuli presented to the normal-hearing ear or that of normal-hearing listeners. It was suggested that a restricted listening bandwidth was responsible for the performance decrement on the tasks involving temporal resolution. This case illustrates the importance of employing temporal resolution tasks in an audiologic test battery. Such assessment tools may reveal deficits that otherwise may go unnoticed in light of excellent word recognition in quiet. Educational Objectives: After reading this article the reader will be able to (1) appreciate the effect of high-frequency hearing loss on temporal resolution and (2) realize the importance of utilizing temporal resolution tasks in an audiologic test battery.