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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...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2016
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4908923 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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