Results of three dichotic speech tests on subjects with intracranial lesions.

Thirty adult subjects with intracranial lesions (12 brain stem and 18 hemispheric) were tested using Competing Sentences, Staggered Spondaic Words, and Dichotic Digits. In comparing these dichotic tests for their ability to detect abnormal performance for individual subjects, the Digit test appeared most sensitive, followed by the Staggered Spondaic Word test and Competing Sentences. This trend seemed to prevail for subjects with hemispheric and brain stem lesions. All three tests demonstrated greater ipsilateral ear deficits for subjects with brain stem lesions. However, for subjects with hemispheric lesions all tests showed generally poorer scores for the ear contralateral to the lesion. These results, as well as other types of analyses for comparing the three dichotic tests in this study, are discussed.