Neuroimaging features in auditory processing disorders

Structural and functional neuroimaging findings in patients with auditory processing disorders can be helpful in making accurate diagnosis, and in better understating about the mechanism of the disorders. Acquired auditory processing disorders as a result of central lesions such as cerebrovascular lesions and traumatic damages have been well established. With structural neuroimaging including CT and MRI, the superior temporal gyrus is frequently involved, and relatively circumscribed bilateral subcortical lesions which impinge on the auditory radiations can cause the symptoms as well. Brainstem lesions could also cause acquired auditory processing disorders though they are not as usual as higher cortical or subcortical lesions. There are few reports about neuroimaging findings in congenital or developmental auditory processing disorders. A recent study that used MRI and PET demonstrated both structural and functional changes in the cortical auditory areas that mainly consist of Heschl's gyrus, the planum temporale, and the Sylvian fissures with the insula, and functional decrease in the precuneus in a patient with developmental auditory processing disorder.