Temporal Processing in Low-Frequency Channels: Effects of Age and Hearing Loss in Middle-Aged Listeners

Leigh-Paffenroth, Elizabeth D.; Elangovan, Saravanan

doi:10.3766/jaaa.22.7.2

Cited by 23 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(67 reference statements)

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“…In a recent study involving young (< 30 years) and older (≥ 60 years) participants with normal individual and matched mean audiograms, Füllgrabe, Moore, and Stone (2012) showed that TFS sensitivity was reduced in the older participants and was indeed associated with the ability to identify speech in noise, but not without the amount of masking release. It will be of interest to establish whether the early midlife reduction in TFS sensitivity observed here coincides with difficulties in speech identification, as suggested in subjective reports (Leigh-Pfaffenroth & Elangovan, 2011).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 65%

Age-Dependent Changes in Temporal-Fine-Structure Processing in the Absence of Peripheral Hearing Loss

Füllgrabe

2013

Am J Audiol

100

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Some suprathreshold auditory processing abilities decline throughout adulthood, even when an individual's peripheral hearing is clinically normal. These deficits are not captured by a conventional, audiometric hearing assessment but may contribute to the increasing difficulties with age to identify speech in noisy environments. From a methodological point of view, the existence of such age effects warrants the use of age-matched participant groups when comparing normal and impaired peripheral hearing.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 65%

Age-Dependent Changes in Temporal-Fine-Structure Processing in the Absence of Peripheral Hearing Loss

Füllgrabe

2013

Am J Audiol

100

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“…Specifically, we reasoned that reverberation might expose effects of early aging, which could help explain why middle-aged listeners report difficulties in challenging listening conditions [2, 15, 16]. In an initial study with young adult to middle-aged normal-hearing listeners (designed to emphasize sensory effects and minimize cognitive factors), we found that reverberant energy interferes with the ability to selectively attend to a speech stream amid similar competing streams [4].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why Middle-Aged Listeners Have Trouble Hearing in Everyday Settings

2012

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Summary Anecdotally, middle-aged listeners report difficulty conversing in social settings, even when they have normal audiometric thresholds [1–3]. Moreover, young adult listeners with “normal” hearing vary in their ability to selectively attend to speech amid similar streams of speech. Ignoring age, these individual differences correlate with physiological differences in temporal coding precision present in the auditory brainstem, suggesting that the fidelity of encoding of suprathreshold sound helps explain individual differences [4]. Here, we revisit the conundrum of whether early aging influences an individual’s ability to communicate in everyday settings. Although absolute selective attention ability is not predicted by age, reverberant energy interferes more with selective attention as age increases. Breaking the brainstem response down into components corresponding to coding of stimulus fine structure and envelope, we find that age alters which brainstem component predicts performance. Specifically, middle-aged listeners appear to rely heavily on temporal fine structure, which is more disrupted by reverberant energy than temporal envelope structure is. In contrast, the fidelity of envelope cues predicts performance in younger adults. These results hint that temporal envelope cues influence spatial hearing in reverberant settings more than is commonly appreciated and help explain why middle-aged listeners have particular difficulty communicating in daily life.

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“…Children with listening difficulties are often diagnosed with auditory processing disorder, but their listening difficulty might actually result from poor attention rather than from impaired sensory processing [5], [47]. Similarly, the aged population often complains of listening difficulties despite normal audiometric scores [48], [49]. An independent test of auditory attention like the TAIL would help to identify how much those difficulties arise from a declining cognitive control system.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Test of Attention in Listening (TAIL) Predicts Auditory Performance

et al. 2012

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Attention modulates auditory perception, but there are currently no simple tests that specifically quantify this modulation. To fill the gap, we developed a new, easy-to-use test of attention in listening (TAIL) based on reaction time. On each trial, two clearly audible tones were presented sequentially, either at the same or different ears. The frequency of the tones was also either the same or different (by at least two critical bands). When the task required same/different frequency judgments, presentation at the same ear significantly speeded responses and reduced errors. A same/different ear (location) judgment was likewise facilitated by keeping tone frequency constant. Perception was thus influenced by involuntary orienting of attention along the task-irrelevant dimension. When information in the two stimulus dimensions were congruent (same-frequency same-ear, or different-frequency different-ear), response was faster and more accurate than when they were incongruent (same-frequency different-ear, or different-frequency same-ear), suggesting the involvement of executive control to resolve conflicts. In total, the TAIL yielded five independent outcome measures: (1) baseline reaction time, indicating information processing efficiency, (2) involuntary orienting of attention to frequency and (3) location, and (4) conflict resolution for frequency and (5) location. Processing efficiency and conflict resolution accounted for up to 45% of individual variances in the low- and high-threshold variants of three psychoacoustic tasks assessing temporal and spectral processing. Involuntary orientation of attention to the irrelevant dimension did not correlate with perceptual performance on these tasks. Given that TAIL measures are unlikely to be limited by perceptual sensitivity, we suggest that the correlations reflect modulation of perceptual performance by attention. The TAIL thus has the power to identify and separate contributions of different components of attention to auditory perception.

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Temporal Processing in Low-Frequency Channels: Effects of Age and Hearing Loss in Middle-Aged Listeners

Cited by 23 publications

References 44 publications

Age-Dependent Changes in Temporal-Fine-Structure Processing in the Absence of Peripheral Hearing Loss

Age-Dependent Changes in Temporal-Fine-Structure Processing in the Absence of Peripheral Hearing Loss

Why Middle-Aged Listeners Have Trouble Hearing in Everyday Settings

A New Test of Attention in Listening (TAIL) Predicts Auditory Performance

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