auditory agnosia
A person with auditory agnosia hears a friend speaking but cannot understand the words.
Noun A neurological condition characterized by the inability to recognize or comprehend the meaning of sounds, particularly spoken words, despite having normal hearing. It is a disorder of auditory perception where the brain cannot interpret or assign meaning to sounds it receives.
The term is used in clinical, medical, and neurological contexts to describe a specific type of perceptual deficit. - It is typically used as a non-count noun (e.g., "The patient has auditory agnosia"). - It can be modified by adjectives specifying the type of sound not recognized (e.g., "verbal auditory agnosia").
- The stroke resulted in auditory agnosia, leaving the patient unable to understand speech, though she could hear perfectly.
- Auditory agnosia for environmental sounds means a person might not recognize a ringing telephone or a car horn.
- Diagnosing auditory agnosia requires extensive testing to distinguish it from hearing loss or aphasia.
- Pure word deafness: A specific subtype of auditory agnosia where the deficit is primarily for spoken language, while recognition of non-verbal sounds remains relatively intact.
- The condition is often discussed in contrast to other agnosias, such as visual agnosia (inability to recognize objects by sight) or tactile agnosia (inability to recognize objects by touch).
- Agnosia (n): The broader category of disorders involving the inability to interpret sensations and recognize things, despite intact sensory organs.
- Phonagnosia (n): The inability to recognize familiar voices, considered a type of auditory agnosia.
- Auditory verbal agnosia (n): A synonym for pure word deafness.
- Acoustic agnosia
- Auditory sound agnosia
- Pure word deafness (for the verbal subtype)
- Cortical deafness: A more severe condition involving bilateral damage to the auditory cortex, leading to an inability to perceive any sound.
- Receptive aphasia (Wernicke's aphasia): A language comprehension disorder that may co-occur with or be confused for auditory agnosia, but involves impaired language processing at a higher level.
A person with auditory agnosia hears a friend speaking but cannot understand the words.
- inability to recognize or understand the meaning of spoken words