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Speech-in-noise representation in the aging midbrain and cortex: Effects of hearing loss

Age-related deficits in speech-in-noise understanding pose a significant problem for older adults. Despite the vast number of studies conducted to investigate the neural mechanisms responsible for these communication difficulties, the role of central auditory deficits, beyond peripheral hearing loss...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Presacco, Alessandro, Simon, Jonathan Z., Anderson, Samira
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6415857/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30865718
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213899
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author Presacco, Alessandro
Simon, Jonathan Z.
Anderson, Samira
author_facet Presacco, Alessandro
Simon, Jonathan Z.
Anderson, Samira
author_sort Presacco, Alessandro
collection PubMed
description Age-related deficits in speech-in-noise understanding pose a significant problem for older adults. Despite the vast number of studies conducted to investigate the neural mechanisms responsible for these communication difficulties, the role of central auditory deficits, beyond peripheral hearing loss, remains unclear. The current study builds upon our previous work that investigated the effect of aging on normal-hearing individuals and aims to estimate the effect of peripheral hearing loss on the representation of speech in noise in two critical regions of the aging auditory pathway: the midbrain and cortex. Data from 14 hearing-impaired older adults were added to a previously published dataset of 17 normal-hearing younger adults and 15 normal-hearing older adults. The midbrain response, measured by the frequency-following response (FFR), and the cortical response, measured with the magnetoencephalography (MEG) response, were recorded from subjects listening to speech in quiet and noise conditions at four signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs): +3, 0, -3, and -6 dB sound pressure level (SPL). Both groups of older listeners showed weaker midbrain response amplitudes and overrepresentation of cortical responses compared to younger listeners. No significant differences were found between the two older groups when the midbrain and cortical measurements were analyzed independently. However, significant differences between the older groups were found when investigating the midbrain-cortex relationships; that is, only hearing-impaired older adults showed significant correlations between midbrain and cortical measurements, suggesting that hearing loss may alter reciprocal connections between lower and higher levels of the auditory pathway. The overall paucity of differences in midbrain or cortical responses between the two older groups suggests that age-related temporal processing deficits may contribute to older adults’ communication difficulties beyond what might be predicted from peripheral hearing loss alone; however, hearing loss does seem to alter the connectivity between midbrain and cortex. These results may have important ramifications for the field of audiology, as it indicates that algorithms in clinical devices, such as hearing aids, should consider age-related temporal processing deficits to maximize user benefit.
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spelling pubmed-64158572019-04-02 Speech-in-noise representation in the aging midbrain and cortex: Effects of hearing loss Presacco, Alessandro Simon, Jonathan Z. Anderson, Samira PLoS One Research Article Age-related deficits in speech-in-noise understanding pose a significant problem for older adults. Despite the vast number of studies conducted to investigate the neural mechanisms responsible for these communication difficulties, the role of central auditory deficits, beyond peripheral hearing loss, remains unclear. The current study builds upon our previous work that investigated the effect of aging on normal-hearing individuals and aims to estimate the effect of peripheral hearing loss on the representation of speech in noise in two critical regions of the aging auditory pathway: the midbrain and cortex. Data from 14 hearing-impaired older adults were added to a previously published dataset of 17 normal-hearing younger adults and 15 normal-hearing older adults. The midbrain response, measured by the frequency-following response (FFR), and the cortical response, measured with the magnetoencephalography (MEG) response, were recorded from subjects listening to speech in quiet and noise conditions at four signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs): +3, 0, -3, and -6 dB sound pressure level (SPL). Both groups of older listeners showed weaker midbrain response amplitudes and overrepresentation of cortical responses compared to younger listeners. No significant differences were found between the two older groups when the midbrain and cortical measurements were analyzed independently. However, significant differences between the older groups were found when investigating the midbrain-cortex relationships; that is, only hearing-impaired older adults showed significant correlations between midbrain and cortical measurements, suggesting that hearing loss may alter reciprocal connections between lower and higher levels of the auditory pathway. The overall paucity of differences in midbrain or cortical responses between the two older groups suggests that age-related temporal processing deficits may contribute to older adults’ communication difficulties beyond what might be predicted from peripheral hearing loss alone; however, hearing loss does seem to alter the connectivity between midbrain and cortex. These results may have important ramifications for the field of audiology, as it indicates that algorithms in clinical devices, such as hearing aids, should consider age-related temporal processing deficits to maximize user benefit. Public Library of Science 2019-03-13 /pmc/articles/PMC6415857/ /pubmed/30865718 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213899 Text en © 2019 Presacco et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Presacco, Alessandro
Simon, Jonathan Z.
Anderson, Samira
Speech-in-noise representation in the aging midbrain and cortex: Effects of hearing loss
title Speech-in-noise representation in the aging midbrain and cortex: Effects of hearing loss
title_full Speech-in-noise representation in the aging midbrain and cortex: Effects of hearing loss
title_fullStr Speech-in-noise representation in the aging midbrain and cortex: Effects of hearing loss
title_full_unstemmed Speech-in-noise representation in the aging midbrain and cortex: Effects of hearing loss
title_short Speech-in-noise representation in the aging midbrain and cortex: Effects of hearing loss
title_sort speech-in-noise representation in the aging midbrain and cortex: effects of hearing loss
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6415857/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30865718
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0213899
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