Electrophysiological Evidence of Auditory and Cognitive Processing Deficits in Parkinson Disease.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) patients are at increased risk for central auditory processing (CAP) deficits and cognitive dysfunction. However, behavioral assessments of CAP and cognitive processing used in a previous study by our research team found few significant differences in performance between early-stage PD patients and age-matched control subjects. The objective of this study is to use auditory event-related potentials (AERPs) to compare CAP and cognitive functions in a population of PD patients with a group of age-matched control subjects.

Auditory Processing Abilities of Parkinson's Disease Patients.

Since Parkinson's Disease (PD) primarily affects older people, a majority of PD patients have age-related hearing loss (HL) that will worsen over time. The goal of this study was to assess peripheral and central auditory functions in a population of PD patients and compare the results with a group of age-matched control subjects. Study participants included 35 adults with PD (mean age = 66.