Evaluation of Interaural Level and Time Difference in Adults with Listening Difficulties and Auditory Processing Disorder

Abstract

Listening Difficulties and Auditory Processing Disorder (LiD/APD) is a condition in which an individual with LiD/APD has difficulty in hearing speech despite standard pure tone audiometric tests showing normal ranges. Although it is known that people with LiD/APD have a wide variety of symptoms, the mechanisms remain unclear. In this study, we focused on acoustic feature processing at the brainstem in adults with LiD/APD and evaluated the sensitivity to interaural level difference (ILD) and interaural time difference (ITD). The results showed that some LiD/APD subjects showed higher thresholds for both ILD and ITD than that of the control group, while others showed thresholds similar to the control group. This suggests that there is no single mechanism for the symptoms of hearing difficulties.