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Aging Affects Neural Synchronization to Speech-Related Acoustic Modulations

As people age, speech perception problems become highly prevalent, especially in noisy situations. In addition to peripheral hearing and cognition, temporal processing plays a key role in speech perception. Temporal processing of speech features is mediated by synchronized activity of neural oscilla...

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Autores principales: Goossens, Tine, Vercammen, Charlotte, Wouters, Jan, van Wieringen, Astrid
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4908923/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27378906
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00133
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author Goossens, Tine
Vercammen, Charlotte
Wouters, Jan
van Wieringen, Astrid
author_facet Goossens, Tine
Vercammen, Charlotte
Wouters, Jan
van Wieringen, Astrid
author_sort Goossens, Tine
collection PubMed
description As people age, speech perception problems become highly prevalent, especially in noisy situations. In addition to peripheral hearing and cognition, temporal processing plays a key role in speech perception. Temporal processing of speech features is mediated by synchronized activity of neural oscillations in the central auditory system. Previous studies indicate that both the degree and hemispheric lateralization of synchronized neural activity relate to speech perception performance. Based on these results, we hypothesize that impaired speech perception in older persons may, in part, originate from deviances in neural synchronization. In this study, auditory steady-state responses that reflect synchronized activity of theta, beta, low and high gamma oscillations (i.e., 4, 20, 40, and 80 Hz ASSR, respectively) were recorded in young, middle-aged, and older persons. As all participants had normal audiometric thresholds and were screened for (mild) cognitive impairment, differences in synchronized neural activity across the three age groups were likely to be attributed to age. Our data yield novel findings regarding theta and high gamma oscillations in the aging auditory system. At an older age, synchronized activity of theta oscillations is increased, whereas high gamma synchronization is decreased. In contrast to young persons who exhibit a right hemispheric dominance for processing of high gamma range modulations, older adults show a symmetrical processing pattern. These age-related changes in neural synchronization may very well underlie the speech perception problems in aging persons.
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spelling pubmed-49089232016-07-04 Aging Affects Neural Synchronization to Speech-Related Acoustic Modulations Goossens, Tine Vercammen, Charlotte Wouters, Jan van Wieringen, Astrid Front Aging Neurosci Neuroscience As people age, speech perception problems become highly prevalent, especially in noisy situations. In addition to peripheral hearing and cognition, temporal processing plays a key role in speech perception. Temporal processing of speech features is mediated by synchronized activity of neural oscillations in the central auditory system. Previous studies indicate that both the degree and hemispheric lateralization of synchronized neural activity relate to speech perception performance. Based on these results, we hypothesize that impaired speech perception in older persons may, in part, originate from deviances in neural synchronization. In this study, auditory steady-state responses that reflect synchronized activity of theta, beta, low and high gamma oscillations (i.e., 4, 20, 40, and 80 Hz ASSR, respectively) were recorded in young, middle-aged, and older persons. As all participants had normal audiometric thresholds and were screened for (mild) cognitive impairment, differences in synchronized neural activity across the three age groups were likely to be attributed to age. Our data yield novel findings regarding theta and high gamma oscillations in the aging auditory system. At an older age, synchronized activity of theta oscillations is increased, whereas high gamma synchronization is decreased. In contrast to young persons who exhibit a right hemispheric dominance for processing of high gamma range modulations, older adults show a symmetrical processing pattern. These age-related changes in neural synchronization may very well underlie the speech perception problems in aging persons. Frontiers Media S.A. 2016-06-15 /pmc/articles/PMC4908923/ /pubmed/27378906 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00133 Text en Copyright © 2016 Goossens, Vercammen, Wouters and van Wieringen. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Goossens, Tine
Vercammen, Charlotte
Wouters, Jan
van Wieringen, Astrid
Aging Affects Neural Synchronization to Speech-Related Acoustic Modulations
title Aging Affects Neural Synchronization to Speech-Related Acoustic Modulations
title_full Aging Affects Neural Synchronization to Speech-Related Acoustic Modulations
title_fullStr Aging Affects Neural Synchronization to Speech-Related Acoustic Modulations
title_full_unstemmed Aging Affects Neural Synchronization to Speech-Related Acoustic Modulations
title_short Aging Affects Neural Synchronization to Speech-Related Acoustic Modulations
title_sort aging affects neural synchronization to speech-related acoustic modulations
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4908923/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27378906
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2016.00133
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