auditory perception

n. Process of recognizing, interpreting, and providing meaning to auditory information. Disturbances in auditory perception are known as auditory agnosia (inability to recognize and understand auditory information in the absence of decreased auditory acuity for pure tones). Auditory perception supposes the ability to recognize and discriminate differences among sounds. Auditory perception for verbal information implies the ability to recognize functional language sounds (phonemes) and may be disturbed in cases of word deafness and Wernicke’s aphasia. Nonverbal auditory agnosia may be found in cases of damage in the auditory association areas of the right hemisphere. Auditory perception requires ability to distinguish the relevant auditory signal from the auditory background (figure-background discrimination), referred to in the auditory system as signal-to-noise discrimination. Sometimes the relevant auditory signal is incomplete, and an auditory closure may occur. When fragments of the auditory information are presented, the fragments can blend to be perceived something significant; this phenomenon is known as auditory blending.     - aa

►See also auditory agnosia, wernicke's APHASIA, and WORD DEAFNESS