How can someone hear sounds normally and still not recognise speech or a ringing phone? · Grey Matter

Hearing tests check whether a tone is detected, which needs only the ear and the early auditory pathway.

How can someone hear sounds normally and still not recognise speech or a ringing phone?

Hearing tests check whether a tone is detected, which needs only the ear and the early auditory pathway. Recognising a sound as a word, a voice or a phone needs the auditory association cortex of the temporal lobe, and damage there (usually on both sides, or on the left together with the fibres from the right) leaves sounds heard but meaningless, a rare condition called auditory agnosia. When only speech is affected it is called pure word deafness: the patient hears that someone is talking, can read and write, and cannot understand what is said.