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Central auditory processing in Alzheimer's disease
Strouse AL, Hall JW, Burger MC.. Ear and hearing, 1995-04-01
Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis
Objective This investigation was designed to determine whether people in the early to middle phases of Alzheimer's disease (AD) show impaired central auditory processing as compared with nondemented elderly. Design A peripheral and central auditory test battery was administered to 10 subjects diagnosed with mild-to-moderate AD based on a neuropsychological test battery and radiographic techniques, and a control group of 10 subjects with no evidence of dementia, matched for age, gender, and average degree of hearing loss. Immittance audiometry, pure-tone and speech audiometry, and otoacoustic emissions were recorded in all subjects. Central auditory assessment included the synthetic sentence identification with ipsilateral competing message, dichotic digits, dichotic sentence identification, pitch patterns, and duration patterns. Results Peripheral auditory status was statistically similar between subject groups. Neither average high frequency hearing sensitivity nor mean speech recognition ability was significantly different. However, a significant difference was noted between groups for average low frequency hearing sensitivity in the left ear (p Conclusions Overall patterns in findings cannot be easily explained as artifacts of cognitive decline. Results support screening for central auditory dysfunction in the AD population, since impaired processing could influence psychiatric assessment of cognitive deficit as well as audiologic management of peripheral hearing loss in this population.
Key findings
- Objective This investigation was designed to determine whether people in the early to middle phases of Alzheimer's disease (AD) show impaired central auditory processing as compared with nondemented elderly.
- Results Peripheral auditory status was statistically similar between subject groups.
- Neither average high frequency hearing sensitivity nor mean speech recognition ability was significantly different.
- However, a significant difference was noted between groups for average low frequency hearing sensitivity in the left ear (p Conclusions Overall patterns in findings cannot be easily explained as artifacts of cognitive decline.
- Results support screening for central auditory dysfunction in the AD population, since impaired processing could influence psychiatric assessment of cognitive deficit as well as audiologic management of peripheral hearing loss in this population.
Why it matters
People in early to middle phases of Alzheimer's disease showed impaired central auditory processing compared with nondemented elderly, though peripheral auditory status was similar. The results support screening for central auditory dysfunction in this population but do not indicate a treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 34/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on senior author's track record, so that was left out: it earned 33 of the 96 points we could judge it on, which is 34 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Ear and hearing) |
| Journal's citation record | 2 / 4 | Ear and Hearing: journal h-index 171 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 1 / 5 | 1995 — older than 20 years, still counted |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 4 / 7 | Cited 99 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 2 / 5 | 3.0 citations a year over 33 year(s) since 1995 |
| Impact for its field and year | 1 / 6 | Cited 0.4× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 1 / 6 | Cited by 2 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 1 / 4 | Cited 6 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | 1 / 3 | Vanderbilt University: institution h-index 1,199 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 0 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 1 institution(s) in 1 country — scores zero (affiliation lists can be incomplete) |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 7789674) |
| Free to read | 0 / 2 | Behind a paywall — scores zero |
| Points | 33 / 96 | Scored on 19 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 33 of the 96 points we could judge it on is 34 out of 100. |
| Total | 34 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
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Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Strouse, A. L., Hall, J. W., & Burger, M. C. (1995). Central auditory processing in Alzheimer's disease. Ear and hearing. https://doi.org/10.1097/00003446-199504000-00010
Vancouver
Strouse AL, Hall JW, Burger MC. Central auditory processing in Alzheimer's disease. Ear and hearing. 1995. doi:10.1097/00003446-199504000-00010. PMID: 7789674.
BibTeX
@article{strouse1995-7789674,
author = {Strouse, A. L. and Hall, J. W. and Burger, M. C.},
title = {{Central auditory processing in Alzheimer's disease}},
journal = {Ear and hearing},
year = {1995},
doi = {10.1097/00003446-199504000-00010},
pmid = {7789674},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1097/00003446-199504000-00010}
}
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