Auditory perception of the depth of space is based mainly on spectral and amplitude changes of sound waves originating from the sound source and reaching the listener. The perceptive illusion of movement of an auditory image caused by changes in amplitude and/or frequency of the signal tone emanating from an immobile loudspeaker was studied. Analysis of data obtained from the participants revealed the diapason of combinations of amplitude and frequency changes for which the movement direction was perceived similarly by all participants, despite significantly different movement assessment criteria. Additional auditory and visual information of the conditions of radial movement (near or far fields) determined listeners' interpretation of changes in the signal parameters. The data obtained about the perception of approach and withdrawal models are evidence of the fact that the principal cues of the perception of the distance of immobile sound sources manifests similarly to that of an auditory image moving along a radial axis.

Reduced left-hemispheric language lateralization has been proposed to be a trait marker for schizophrenia, but the empirical evidence is ambiguous. Recent studies suggest that auditory hallucinations are critical for whether a patient shows reduced language lateralization. Therefore, the aim of the study was to statistically integrate studies investigating language lateralization in schizophrenia patients using dichotic listening. To this end, two meta-analyses were conducted, one comparing schizophrenia patients with healthy controls (n = 1407), the other comparing schizophrenia patients experiencing auditory hallucinations with non-hallucinating controls (n = 407). Schizophrenia patients showed weaker language lateralization than healthy controls but the effect size was small (g = −0.26). When patients with auditory hallucinations were compared to non-hallucinating controls, the effect size was substantially larger (g = −0.45). These effect sizes suggest that reduced language lateralization is a weak trait marker for schizophrenia as such and a strong trait marker for the experience of auditory hallucinations within the schizophrenia population. (JINS, 2013, 19, 1–9.)

Difficulties in social communication in individuals with Klinefelter syndrome (XXY chromosomal pattern) have largely been attributed to deficits in left hemisphere-mediated, language functions. This study examined the ability of XXY men to decode emotions from tone of voice, a pragmatic aspect of social communication that may be associated with right hemisphere functioning. A total of 26 XXY men and 20 men from the general population completed tasks involving emotion discrimination in speech, based on verbal content or tone of voice. The XXY group displayed relative difficulties in discriminating emotions in tone of voice, and, to a lesser extend, in verbal content. This finding suggests that the XXY chromosomal pattern may not only be associated with difficulties in semantic aspects of language, but with prosodic aspects, as well. Our findings may contribute to the development of more comprehensive models addressing the role of the X chromosome in normal and abnormal development of social communication. (JINS, 2007, 13, 1065–1070.)

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder diagnosed clinically with the development of choreiform movements. However, neuropsychological studies have demonstrated cognitive and psychiatric changes during the preclinical phase (pre-HD) prior to formal diagnosis. Previous studies have demonstrated the sensitivity of time reproduction tasks to basal ganglia pathology, as seen in clinical HD and Parkinson's disease. In this study, 29 pre-HD participants, ranging from 3 to 39 years from estimated onset (YEO) of HD based on genetic testing and chronological age, were administered the paced finger-tapping task using target intervals of 600 and 1200 ms. Mean inter-response interval, a measure of timing accuracy, did not systematically deviate from the target interval as a function of YEO. In contrast, timing variability increased curvilinearly as a function of YEO, but not with chronological age alone. Motor timing variability, but not accuracy, may serve as a marker to define the earliest behavioral changes in HD. The present study is among the first to examine the relationship between behavioral measures and YEO in pre-HD. (JINS, 2007, 13, 539–543.)

This study examined implicit semantic and rhyming cues on perception of auditory stimuli among nonaphasic participants who suffered a lesion of the right cerebral hemisphere and auditory neglect of sound perceived by the left ear. Because language represents an elaborate processing of auditory stimuli and the language centers were intact among these patients, it was hypothesized that interactive verbal stimuli presented in a dichotic manner would attenuate neglect. The selected participants were administered an experimental dichotic listening test composed of six types of word pairs: unrelated words, synonyms, antonyms, categorically related words, compound words, and rhyming words. Presentation of word pairs that were semantically related resulted in a dramatic reduction of auditory neglect. Dichotic presentations of rhyming words exacerbated auditory neglect. These findings suggest that the perception of auditory information is strongly affected by the specific content conveyed by the auditory system. Language centers will process a degraded stimulus that contains salient language content. A degraded auditory stimulus is neglected if it is devoid of content that activates the language centers or other cognitive systems. In general, these findings suggest that auditory neglect involves a complex interaction of intact and impaired cerebral processing centers with content that is selectively processed by these centers (JINS, 2006, 12, 649–656.)

The Attention Network Test (ANT) uses visual stimuli to separately assess the attentional skills of alerting (improved performance following a warning cue), spatial orienting (an additional benefit when the warning cue also cues target location), and executive control (impaired performance when a target stimulus contains conflicting information). This study contrasted performance on auditory and visual versions of the ANT to determine whether the measures it obtains are influenced by presentation modality. Forty healthy volunteers completed both auditory and visual tests. Reaction-time measures of executive control were of a similar magnitude and significantly correlated, suggesting that executive control might be a supramodal resource. Measures of alerting were also comparable across tasks. In contrast, spatial-orienting benefits were obtained only in the visual task. Auditory spatial cues did not improve response times to auditory targets presented at the cued location. The different spatial-orienting measures could reflect either separate orienting resources for each perceptual modality, or an interaction between a supramodal orienting resource and modality-specific perceptual processing (JINS, 2006, 12, 485–492.)

Although the definitions of subjective tinnitus and auditory hallucination are very similar, the origins and underlying causes of each symptom clearly differ. This study examined whether the differentiation of tinnitus from auditory hallucination is necessary for the proper management of these symptoms in schizophrenic patients. We investigated the characteristics of auditory hallucinations in 15 schizophrenic patients, and measured their pure-tone hearing levels and auditory brainstem responses (ABR). The average hearing level was 20.6 ± 16.2 dB, with a mild decrease at high frequencies. We classified the patients into three groups: pure hallucination, tinnitus, and hallucination plus tinnitus. Eight patients (53.3 per cent) complained of pure-hallucination and only one of them had a mild hearing loss. Hearing deficits were observed in six of seven tinnitus patients. Abnormal findings of ABR were found only in the pure-hallucination group. The results suggest that tinnitus should be differentiated fromauditory hallucination in the evaluation of schizophrenic patients.

Background and objective: The role of sevoflurane has not been studied in relation to awareness during anaesthesia. We observed the effect of sevoflurane on the incidence of awareness during cardiopulmonary bypass for open-heart surgery.

Methods: Fifty-nine patients of age >17 yr undergoing open-heart surgery with cardiopulmonary bypass were randomly assigned to two groups. In both groups, induction was with etomidate, dehydrobenzperidol and fentanyl; anaesthesia was maintained with sevoflurane, fentanyl and N2O; vecuronium was used for muscular paralysis. Group 1 (30 patients) received dehydrobenzperidol and fentanyl during cardiopulmonary bypass; Group 2 (29 patients) received sevoflurane and fentanyl. Patients were given different auditory inputs during different phases of surgery. All patients were interviewed with standard questions 8 and 24h postoperatively for evidence of explicit awareness.

Results: Five patients in the dehydrobenzperidol group gave a history of awareness (16.67%) as opposed to none in the sevoflurane group. The difference in the incidences of awareness was significant (P < 0.05), but no differences were found between the interviews conducted at 8 and 24h. Sevoflurane and opioid combination reduced the incidence of awareness in open-heart surgery.

Decibel scales are a very important but potentially confusing subject for the clinician. Misunderstanding can, at worst, lead to inappropriate management which is detrimental to the patient. This paper sets out, from the viewpoint of an acoustician, the calibration and meaning of the various decibel scales in common use, shows how they are applied to the clinical setting, and explains their limitations.