Cortical and Sensory Causes of Individual Differences in Selective Attention Ability Among Listeners With Normal Hearing Thresholds

Abstract

I n a sizeable minority of cases, patients seeking audiological treatment have normal hearing thresholds (NHTs) but report difficulties understanding speech when there are competing sound sources (Hind et al., 2011). Such listeners are said to have "central auditory processing disorder" or "auditory processing disorder" (Furman, Kujawa, & Liberman, 2013;Kujawa & Liberman, 2009;Lin, Furman, Kujawa, & Liberman, 2011;Rosen, Cohen, & Vanniasegaram, 2010), a catchall diagnosis that says nothing about the underlying causes of the communication difficulties, making it difficult to develop effective treatments.The challenge of understanding speech in settings where there are multiple sound sources is known as the cocktail party problem, a term originally coined by Cherry (1953). Understanding how listeners with normal hearing solve the cocktail party problem has remained a focus of study for over 50 years (e.g., see Bee & Micheyl, 2008;Bodden, 1993;Hafter et al., 2013;Wood & Cowan, 1995;Yost, 1997), in no small part because of its importance: difficulties in such settings expose communication difficulties that do not show up in simpler listening conditions.There are numerous reasons why listeners with NHTs might find it difficult to communicate in noisy environments, from language-specific deficits to general cognitive deficits. This article reviews two specific issues that can affect the ability of listeners with NHTs to solve the cocktail party problem: (a) efficacy of cognitive control networks in the brain responsible for focusing selective auditory attention and (b) fidelity of the sensory representation of suprathreshold (clearly audible) sound. By differentiating among more specific mechanistic failures that can impede communication in complex settings, clinicians will be able

Unraveling the relation between EEG-correlates of attentional orienting and sound localization performance: a diffusion model approach

“…As expected, older adults showed fewer correct responses and slower response times than younger adults. This is in line with the often-described difficulties of older people to follow a conversation in noisy ("cocktail-party") environments, which depends on the integrity of both sensory and cognitive functions (Shinn-Cunningham, 2017). Declined performance in older adults in the present task is likely to be related to age-related deficits in concurrent sound segregation (Alain & McDonald, 2007;Hanenberg, Getzmann, & Lewald, 2019;Snyder & Alain, 2005).…”

Dimension-selective attention as a possible driver of dynamic, context-dependent re-weighting in speech processing

“…Larger-scale future studies sampling a more diverse participant population have the potential to establish the range of individual variability evident among healthy listeners. This would be highly desirable as a benchmark for clinical assessment of dimension-based auditory selective attention among healthy older listeners who exhibit auditory selective attention difficulties, and among individuals with neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative disorders that impact auditory attention (Shinn-Cunningham, 2017). It may be especially valuable that the SASA task is unlikely to be contaminated by language ability, native-language background, and other speech-specific factors.…”

Sensorineural hearing loss degrades behavioral and physiological measures of human spatial selective auditory attention

“…Selective auditory attention depends on the formation of auditory objects ( 8 – 11 ); without properly parsing a scene, the brain cannot suppress responses to unattended sounds. Object formation is driven by local spectrotemporal structures as well as the continuity over time of higher-order features like pitch, timbre, and spatial location ( 12 – 14 ). Selective attention to auditory objects is influenced by both top-down control and bottom-up salience ( 14 ).…”

“…Object formation is driven by local spectrotemporal structures as well as the continuity over time of higher-order features like pitch, timbre, and spatial location ( 12 – 14 ). Selective attention to auditory objects is influenced by both top-down control and bottom-up salience ( 14 ). Auditory attention operates as a form of sensory gain control, enhancing the representation of an attended object and suppressing the representation of ignored objects ( 15 – 17 ).…”