What is ‘Normal’ Hearing?
Ask an audiologist what “normal” hearing is and, not surprisingly, you will get a variety of responses. Certainly, normal pure-tone threshold sensitivity does not rule out hearing difficulty or the presence of auditory pathology, including cochlear and auditory neural peripheral or central deficits. Further, a number of non-auditory factors can contribute to a patient’s perceived hearing difficulty (e.g., cognitive capacity, attention, medications, etc.).