Auditory Processing After Sport-Related Concussions

Abstract

In Brief Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate whether sport-related concussions disrupt auditory processes. Design: Sixteen university athletes participated in the study: eight had one or more sport-related concussions, and eight never experienced a concussion. The Frequency Pattern Sequence test, the Duration Pattern Sequence test, the Synthetic Sentence Identification test, and the Staggered Spondaic Word test were used to assess auditory processing. Results: All nonconcussed athletes have normal auditory processing. In contrast, more than half of the concussed athletes had deficits for one or more of the auditory processing tests. Conclusions: The pattern of results suggests that sport-related concussions can disrupt the neurological mechanisms implicated in several auditory processes, including monaural low-redundancy speech recognition, tone pattern recognition, and dichotic listening. Auditory processing was evaluated in 16 university athletes with no history of concussion (8) and with a history of one or more sports-related concussions (8). All nonconcussed athletes showed normal auditory processing, while 60% of the concussed athletes had deficits in one or more of the auditory processing tasks.