Objective: to investigate auditory function in subjects with early Alzheimer's disease, mild cognitive impairment and with subjective memory complaints, in search of signs of central auditory processing dysfunction even in early stages of cognitive impairment.
Design and subjects: a consecutive group of men and women, referred to the Memory Clinic at the Karolinska University Hospital, was approached for inclusion in this prospective study. One hundred and thirty-six subjects, mean age 64 years (range 50-78 years), diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (n = 43), mild cognitive impairment (n = 59) or with subjective memory complaints (n = 34), were included.
Methods: auditory function was assessed with pure tone audiometry, speech perception in quiet and in background noise and dichotic digits tests with two or three digits.
Results: pure tone audiometry and speech perception scores in quiet and in background noise were normal for age and without between-group differences. Dichotic digits tests showed strongly significant differences between the three groups, where the Alzheimer's disease group performed significantly poorer than the other two groups, with the mild cognitive impairment group in an intermediate position.
Conclusions: our results demonstrate that central auditory processing dysfunction is highly evident in subjects with Alzheimer's disease, and to a considerable extent even in subjects with mild cognitive impairment.