The Listening in Spatialized Noise Test: An Auditory Processing Disorder Study

Abstract

The Listening in Spatialized Noise test (LISN) produces a virtual three-dimensional auditory environment under headphones. Various measures assess the extent to which either spatial, vocal, or spatial and vocal cues combined increase a listener's ability to comprehend a target story in the presence of distracter sentences, without being affected by differences between participants in variables such as linguistic skills. Ten children at risk for auditory processing disorder (APD group) were assessed on the LISN, as well as a traditional APD test battery. The APD group performed significantly more poorly on all LISN measures than 48 age-matched controls. On the spatial advantage measure, the APD group achieved a mean advantage of only 3.7 dB when the distracters were spatially separated from the target by +/-90 degrees, compared to 10.0 dB for the controls-the 6.3 dB difference significant at p < 0.000001, with nine children scoring outside the normal range. The LISN was considered a promising addition to an APD test battery.

Auditory difficulties in blast-exposed Veterans with clinically normal hearing

“…Specifically, compared with Brown et al, performance for 49 and 16 percent of the participants was 1 SD below the mean for spatial and talker advantage, respectively [43]. Spatial advantage requires use of binaural processing while talker advantage requires use of cues such as pitch to distinguish the signal and masker [45]. The data thus indicate that as a group, the blast-exposed Veterans in this study have a deficit in binaural processing abilities but do not have a deficit in their use of pitch cues.…”

Development of Auditory Localization Accuracy and Auditory Spatial Discrimination in Children and Adolescents

“…Spatial hearing difficulties might also contribute to APD [Cameron et al, 2006;Cameron and Dillon, 2008], but here the interrelation is still subject to research. Therefore, detailed knowledge of spatial hearing development is essential for a meaningful diagnosis of APD [Jerger and Musiek, 2000] since age-dependent capacity of spatial auditory skills is an immediate indicator of the power of binaural integrative central auditory processing.…”

The relation between working memory capacity and auditory lateralization in children with auditory processing disorders

“…Cameron and Dillon [26] have suggested that spatial hearing deficit is a major cause of auditory processing disorders. They have proposed the use of the ''Listening in Spatialized Noise-Sentences test'' to diagnose auditory stream segregation deficits in children experiencing listening difficulties in the classroom.…”