Comparison the Duration Patterns Sequence Test (DPST) Between Multiple Sclerosis and Normal Participants

Background and Aim: Many of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with normal pure tone thresholds complain from difficulties in their hearing, especially perception of speech in background noise. Many tests for evaluation of this dysfunction have been developed; one of the best tests that are applied for evaluating the ability of individual to process and categorize brief, rapid changes in auditory stimuli is duration pattern sequence test (DPST). Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to compare between MS and normal 18-40-years-old participants by the duration pattern sequence test (DPST).Materials and Methods: This analytic-descriptive non-invasive cohort study was conducted on 20 relapsing-remitting MS and 26 normal subjects 18-40-year-old with normal hearing. The finding data, percent of corrected answers, in two groups was evaluated by T-test. Results: The finding showed reduction of corrected answers percentage in DPST test between two groups (P<0.05). in addition, long periods of the disease showed poor performance in DPST test in both ear. Conclusion: The findings of this study confirm that temporal resolution deficits in patient with MS may be related to involvement of central auditory processing nervous system.Keywords: Temporal Processing, Temporal Ordering, Duration Pattern Sequence Test (DPST), Multiple Sclerosis (MS)