Decline of speech understanding and auditory thresholds in the elderly

Abstract

A group of 29 elderly subjects between 60.0 and 83.7 years of age at the beginning of the study, and whose hearing loss was not greater than moderate, was tested twice, an average of 5.27 years apart. The tests measured pure-tone thresholds, word recognition in quiet, and a set of tests of understanding speech with various types of distortion (low-pass filtering, time compression) or interference (single speaker, babble noise, reverberation). Performance declined consistently and significantly between the two testing phases. In addition, the variability of speech understanding measures increased significantly between testing phases, though the variability of audiometric measurements did not. A right-ear superiority was observed but this lateral asymmetry did not increase between testing phases. Using a group of young subjects with normal hearing to establish a baseline, we found that the decline of speech understanding measures accelerated significantly relative to the decline in audiometric measures in the seventh to ninth decades of life. On the assumption that speech understanding depends linearly on age and audiometric variables, there is evidence that this linear relationship changes with age, suggesting that not only the accuracy but also the nature of speech understanding evolves as we mature.

Physiological correlates of age-related decline in vibrotactile sensitivity

“…The relationship observed between the logVPT and age is consistent with previous findings of an accelerated loss of vibrotactile sensitivity in the thenar eminence over the aging process [38] and is also in line with the measurements used for quantifying other sensory functions such as auditory function [7] or visual contrast sensitivity [26]. Notably, the age-associated decline in tactile sensitivity is steeper for vibration compared to other sensory modalities such as touch [34] and age contributes the most to increase in vibration threshold [8,23] leading to suggestions that the decline in vibrotactile sensitivity is an inherent manifestation of nervous system aging.…”

Perceptual training improves syllable identification in new and experienced hearing aid users

“…We found that increased age in our subject population was associated with poorer performance on the NST (r = 0.48, p < 0.05), consistent with other recent studies [55]. Surprisingly, older subjects improved more with training than did younger subjects, although the effect failed to reach statistical significance (r = 0.30, p > 0.10).…”

Loudness perception and speech intensity control in Parkinson's disease

“…Research on the acoustic reflexes of a normal aging population shows that their acoustic thresholds have a tendency to be higher (Devenyi, Stark, & Haupt, 2005).…”

“…Old age is also associated with a physiological degeneration of the auditory system or more specifically, a stiffening of the tympanic membrane, the ossicular chain, loss of hair cells and neurons, changes in the cochlea, and a decline in the functioning of the central auditory system (Frisina, 2009;Huang & Tang, 2010). Presbycusis can have a dramatic impact on speech comprehension and it can also cause an increase in auditory thresholds within the aging population (Devenyi et al, 2005). During the audiometric evaluation, it was difficult to determine the participants' acoustic thresholds especially at the higher frequency levels because neural adaption was rapidly occurring.…”