SLP Hearing & Auditory Processing 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which structure in the auditory system is responsible for tonotopic organization, with high frequencies represented at the base and low frequencies at the apex?
- Tympanic membrane
- Cochlea (Correct answer)
- Ossicular chain
- Auditory cortex
Correct answer: Cochlea
The cochlea is tonotopically organized, with hair cells at the base responding to high frequencies and those at the apex responding to low frequencies.
Question 2: A school-age child shows difficulty understanding rapidly presented speech but performs well with slowed speech. Which intervention strategy is MOST appropriate?
- Auditory memory training
- Temporal processing intervention targeting auditory rate processing (Correct answer)
- Phonological awareness training only
- Pure-tone audiometry follow-up
Correct answer: Temporal processing intervention targeting auditory rate processing
Difficulty with rapid speech suggests a temporal processing deficit, and interventions targeting auditory rate processing (e.g., Fast ForWord) address this directly.
Question 3: Which cranial nerve carries auditory information from the cochlea to the brainstem?
- Cranial nerve VII (facial)
- Cranial nerve VIII (vestibulocochlear) (Correct answer)
- Cranial nerve V (trigeminal)
- Cranial nerve X (vagus)
Correct answer: Cranial nerve VIII (vestibulocochlear)
Cranial nerve VIII (vestibulocochlear) has both cochlear and vestibular divisions; the cochlear branch transmits auditory signals to the brainstem.
Question 4: An adult patient reports hearing a constant high-pitched ringing with no external sound source. This symptom is BEST described as:
- Hyperacusis
- Tinnitus (Correct answer)
- Diplacusis
- Recruitment
Correct answer: Tinnitus
Tinnitus is the perception of sound (ringing, buzzing, hissing) in the absence of an external acoustic stimulus.
Question 5: In evaluating APD, the Dichotic Digits Test assesses which auditory processing skill?
- Auditory closure
- Binaural separation and integration (Correct answer)
- Auditory figure-ground
- Temporal resolution
Correct answer: Binaural separation and integration
The Dichotic Digits Test presents different digit sequences simultaneously to each ear, assessing binaural separation and integration.
Question 6: A patient with a lesion in the right auditory cortex is MOST likely to show difficulty with:
- Detecting pure tones in quiet
- Processing music and prosody; left ear dichotic deficits (Correct answer)
- Understanding speech in all conditions
- Bone conduction hearing thresholds
Correct answer: Processing music and prosody; left ear dichotic deficits
The right auditory cortex processes prosody, music, and spatial aspects of hearing; cortical lesions also cause contralateral (left ear) deficits on dichotic tasks.
Question 7: Which intervention technique involves having a child listen to degraded speech (e.g., filtered or compressed) to improve auditory closure skills?
- Phoneme awareness drill
- Auditory closure training with degraded speech stimuli (Correct answer)
- Discrimination training with minimal pairs
- Binaural integration exercises
Correct answer: Auditory closure training with degraded speech stimuli
Auditory closure training uses degraded or incomplete speech to strengthen the brain's ability to fill in missing acoustic information.
SLP Hearing & Auditory Processing 3
Which structure in the auditory system is responsible for tonotopic organization, with high frequencies represented at the base and low frequencies at the apex?