Central auditory function in stutterers.

Central auditory function was assessed in 10 stutterers and 10 nonstutterers. Performance of the two groups was compared for seven audiometric procedures including acoustic reflex threshold, acoustic reflex amplitude function, performance intensity function for monosyllabic phonetically balanced (PB) words, performance intensity function for Synthetic Sentence Identification, Synthetic Sentence Identification with Ipsilateral Competing Message, Synthetic Sentence Identification with Contralateral Competing Message, and the Staggered Spondaic Word test. Relative to the control group, the performance of the stuttering group was depressed on three procedures--the acoustic reflex amplitude function, Synthetic Identification with Ipsilateral Competing Message, and Staggered Spondaic Word test. As a group, the stutterers presented evidence of a central auditory deficiency. The pattern of test results suggests a disorder at the brainstem level. The subtlety of the deficiency is emphasized.