TY - JOUR
T1 - Deaf hearing
T2 - Implicit discrimination of auditory content in a patient with mixed hearing loss
AU - Brogaard, Berit
AU - Marlow, Kristian
AU - Overgaard, Morten
AU - Schwartz, Bennett L.
AU - Zopluoglu, Cengiz
AU - Tomson, Steffie
AU - Neufed, Janina
AU - Sinke, Christopher
AU - Owen, Christopher
AU - Eagleman, David
PY - 2017/2/17
Y1 - 2017/2/17
N2 - We describe a patient LS, profoundly deaf in both ears from birth, with underdeveloped superior temporal gyri. Without hearing aids, LS displays no ability to detect sounds below a fixed threshold of 60 dBs, which classifies him as clinically deaf. Under these no-hearing-aid conditions, when presented with a forced-choice paradigm in which he is asked to consciously respond, he is unable to make above-chance judgments about the presence or location of sounds. However, he is able to make above-chance judgments about the content of sounds presented to him under forced-choice conditions. We demonstrated that LS has faint sensations from auditory stimuli, but questionable awareness of auditory content. LS thus has a form of type-2 deaf hearing with respect to auditory content. As in the case of a subject with acquired deafness and deaf hearing reported on a previous occasion, LS’s condition of deaf hearing is akin in some respects to type-2 blindsight. As for the case of type 2 blindsight the case indicates that a form of conscious hearing can arise in the absence of a fully developed auditory cortex.
AB - We describe a patient LS, profoundly deaf in both ears from birth, with underdeveloped superior temporal gyri. Without hearing aids, LS displays no ability to detect sounds below a fixed threshold of 60 dBs, which classifies him as clinically deaf. Under these no-hearing-aid conditions, when presented with a forced-choice paradigm in which he is asked to consciously respond, he is unable to make above-chance judgments about the presence or location of sounds. However, he is able to make above-chance judgments about the content of sounds presented to him under forced-choice conditions. We demonstrated that LS has faint sensations from auditory stimuli, but questionable awareness of auditory content. LS thus has a form of type-2 deaf hearing with respect to auditory content. As in the case of a subject with acquired deafness and deaf hearing reported on a previous occasion, LS’s condition of deaf hearing is akin in some respects to type-2 blindsight. As for the case of type 2 blindsight the case indicates that a form of conscious hearing can arise in the absence of a fully developed auditory cortex.
KW - Auditory awareness
KW - audition-for-action
KW - audition-for-perception
KW - cortical deafness
KW - mixed hearing loss
KW - perceptual awareness scale
KW - perceptual content
KW - type-2 blindsight
KW - type-2 deaf hearing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85011827147&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85011827147&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09515089.2016.1268680
DO - 10.1080/09515089.2016.1268680
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85011827147
VL - 30
SP - 21
EP - 43
JO - Philosophical Psychology
JF - Philosophical Psychology
SN - 0951-5089
IS - 1-2
ER -