Audiogram — Functional / Non-Organic (Pseudohypacusis) with Positive Stenger

A 35-year-old male presents with a claim of sudden severe unilateral hearing loss in the left ear following a workplace noise exposure incident. He is pursuing a compensation claim. Audiometry shows a claimed left ear threshold of 80 dB HL across frequencies, with a normal right ear threshold of 10 dB HL. During testing, the structure marked **A** in the diagram is performed: a 1000 Hz tone is presented simultaneously at 90 dB HL to the left ear (10 dB above his claimed threshold) and 0 dB HL to the right ear (10 dB below his claimed threshold). The patient does not respond to this stimulus pair. What does this finding most strongly suggest about the nature of this patient's hearing loss?