- Lower intellectual ability was strongly associated with poorer multitalker speech perception despite normal audiometric and otoacoustic findings.
- Participants with autism and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder required more favorable listening conditions to identify a target speaker amid competing voices.
- Full Scale IQ, verbal ability, and nonverbal ability each showed negative correlations with speech-in-noise performance across all diagnostic groups.
- The cognitive–auditory relationship persisted within each subgroup, indicating an effect independent of autism or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder diagnosis.
- Findings highlight that central auditory processing difficulties can occur even with intact peripheral hearing, particularly in patients with neurodevelopmental or cognitive impairments.
Source: PLOS One
