Current status and perspectives of research on listening difficulties (LiD)/auditory processing disorder (APD) based on the needs of the parties involved.

Abstract

　　An increasing number of parties complain of difficulty in hearing in noisy environments and in the presence of multiple speech sounds, in spite of pure tone audiometry showing no abnormalities. This condition is called auditory processing disorder (APD). It is considered as a condition in which the auditory threshold is normal, but central auditory information processing is difficult problematic. In Japan, there are no diagnostic criteria for APD, which is a problem for both physicians and patients. We have been conducting research under contract with the AMED project “Development of a Guide for Diagnosis and Support of Auditory Processing Disorders Based on the Needs of Patients with APD,” for fiscal year 2021. It means we We have been conducting research under contract with the AMED since 2021. In the process, it has become clear that many people with APD have related symptoms, such as attention disorder, cognitive problems, and language problems, in addition to problems in auditory information processing. Therefore, we thought that it might be preferable to refer to APD more broadly as Listening Difficulties (LiD). We also propose the following criteria for diagnosis: subjective symptoms of listening difficulties, normal pure tone audiometry, normal speech intelligibility, at least one abnormal value in the auditory information processing test, and a mean value. Auditory Processing Test made by Kaga and Obuchi etc. is constructed 7 tests. The test is expressed in a number of numerical results (such as percentage of correct answers, response time, and so on).

　　We decide that 『abnormal value (outlier) in the Auditory Processing Test』 is a value deviated from mean value － or ＋2SD (－or＋ depends on the content of the test) of people who has no Listening Difficlties, and we also decide that patients having more than “one abnormal value” in the Auditory Processing Test, subjective symptoms of listening difficulties, normal pure tone audiometry, normal speech intelligibility are LiD/APD.