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Lai J, Alain C, Bidelman GM. Cortical-brainstem interplay during speech perception in older adults with and without hearing loss. Front Neurosci 2023; 17:1075368. [PMID: 36816123 PMCID: PMC9932544 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1075368] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/20/2022] [Accepted: 01/17/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction Real time modulation of brainstem frequency-following responses (FFRs) by online changes in cortical arousal state via the corticofugal (top-down) pathway has been demonstrated previously in young adults and is more prominent in the presence of background noise. FFRs during high cortical arousal states also have a stronger relationship with speech perception. Aging is associated with increased auditory brain responses, which might reflect degraded inhibitory processing within the peripheral and ascending pathways, or changes in attentional control regulation via descending auditory pathways. Here, we tested the hypothesis that online corticofugal interplay is impacted by age-related hearing loss. Methods We measured EEG in older adults with normal-hearing (NH) and mild to moderate hearing-loss (HL) while they performed speech identification tasks in different noise backgrounds. We measured α power to index online cortical arousal states during task engagement. Subsequently, we split brainstem speech-FFRs, on a trial-by-trial basis, according to fluctuations in concomitant cortical α power into low or high α FFRs to index cortical-brainstem modulation. Results We found cortical α power was smaller in the HL than the NH group. In NH listeners, α-FFRs modulation for clear speech (i.e., without noise) also resembled that previously observed in younger adults for speech in noise. Cortical-brainstem modulation was further diminished in HL older adults in the clear condition and by noise in NH older adults. Machine learning classification showed low α FFR frequency spectra yielded higher accuracy for classifying listeners' perceptual performance in both NH and HL participants. Moreover, low α FFRs decreased with increased hearing thresholds at 0.5-2 kHz for clear speech but noise generally reduced low α FFRs in the HL group. Discussion Collectively, our study reveals cortical arousal state actively shapes brainstem speech representations and provides a potential new mechanism for older listeners' difficulties perceiving speech in cocktail party-like listening situations in the form of a miss-coordination between cortical and subcortical levels of auditory processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jesyin Lai
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States,School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States,Department of Diagnostic Imaging, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States
| | - Claude Alain
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, ON, Canada,Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
| | - Gavin M. Bidelman
- Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States,School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States,Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States,Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States,*Correspondence: Gavin M. Bidelman,
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Sauvé SA, Marozeau J, Rich Zendel B. The effects of aging and musicianship on the use of auditory streaming cues. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0274631. [PMID: 36137151 PMCID: PMC9498935 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274631] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/04/2022] [Accepted: 08/31/2022] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Auditory stream segregation, or separating sounds into their respective sources and tracking them over time, is a fundamental auditory ability. Previous research has separately explored the impacts of aging and musicianship on the ability to separate and follow auditory streams. The current study evaluated the simultaneous effects of age and musicianship on auditory streaming induced by three physical features: intensity, spectral envelope and temporal envelope. In the first study, older and younger musicians and non-musicians with normal hearing identified deviants in a four-note melody interleaved with distractors that were more or less similar to the melody in terms of intensity, spectral envelope and temporal envelope. In the second study, older and younger musicians and non-musicians participated in a dissimilarity rating paradigm with pairs of melodies that differed along the same three features. Results suggested that auditory streaming skills are maintained in older adults but that older adults rely on intensity more than younger adults while musicianship is associated with increased sensitivity to spectral and temporal envelope, acoustic features that are typically less effective for stream segregation, particularly in older adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah A. Sauvé
- Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
- * E-mail:
| | - Jeremy Marozeau
- Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Benjamin Rich Zendel
- Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
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Jain S, Narne VK, Nataraja NP, Madhukesh S, Kumar K, Moore BCJ. The effect of age and hearing sensitivity at frequencies above 8 kHz on auditory stream segregation and speech perception. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2022; 152:716. [PMID: 35931505 DOI: 10.1121/10.0012917] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 07/07/2022] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
The effects of age and mild hearing loss over the extended high-frequency (EHF) range from 9000 to 16 000 Hz on speech perception and auditory stream segregation were assessed using four groups: (1) young with normal hearing threshold levels (HTLs) over both the conventional and EHF range; (2) older with audiograms matched to those for group 1; (3) young with normal HTLs over the conventional frequency range and elevated HTLs over the EHF range; (4) older with audiograms matched to those for group 3. For speech in quiet, speech recognition thresholds and speech identification scores did not differ significantly across groups. For monosyllables in noise, both greater age and hearing loss over the EHF range adversely affected performance, but the effect of age was much larger than the effect of hearing status. Stream segregation was assessed using a rapid sequence of vowel stimuli differing in fundamental frequency (F0). Larger differences in F0 were required for stream segregation for the two groups with impaired hearing in the EHF range, but there was no significant effect of age. It is argued that impaired hearing in the EHF range is associated with impaired auditory function at lower frequencies, despite normal audiometric thresholds at those frequencies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Saransh Jain
- All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, University of Mysore, Mysuru-570006 (Kar.), India
| | - Vijaya Kumar Narne
- Department of Medical Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Khalid University, Abha 61481, Saudi Arabia
| | - N P Nataraja
- JSS Institute of Speech and Hearing, University of Mysore, Mysuru-570004 (Kar.), India
| | - Sanjana Madhukesh
- Department of Speech and Hearing, Manipal College of Health Professionals, Manipal-576104 (Kar.), India
| | - Kruthika Kumar
- District Disabled Rehabilitation Centre, Chikmagalur-577126 (Kar.), India
| | - Brian C J Moore
- Cambridge Hearing Group, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, United Kingdom
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Lentz JJ, Humes LE, Kidd GR. Differences in Auditory Perception Between Young and Older Adults When Controlling for Differences in Hearing Loss and Cognition. Trends Hear 2022; 26:23312165211066180. [PMID: 34989641 PMCID: PMC8753078 DOI: 10.1177/23312165211066180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
This study was designed to examine age effects on various auditory perceptual skills using a large group of listeners (155 adults, 121 aged 60-88 years and 34 aged 18-30 years), while controlling for the factors of hearing loss and working memory (WM). All subjects completed 3 measures of WM, 7 psychoacoustic tasks (24 conditions) and a hearing assessment. Psychophysical measures were selected to tap phenomena thought to be mediated by higher-level auditory function and included modulation detection, modulation detection interference, informational masking (IM), masking level difference (MLD), anisochrony detection, harmonic mistuning, and stream segregation. Principal-components analysis (PCA) was applied to each psychoacoustic test. For 6 of the 7 tasks, a single component represented performance across the multiple stimulus conditions well, whereas the modulation-detection interference (MDI) task required two components to do so. The effect of age was analyzed using a general linear model applied to each psychoacoustic component. Once hearing loss and WM were accounted for as covariates in the analyses, estimated marginal mean thresholds were lower for older adults on tasks based on temporal processing. When evaluated separately, hearing loss led to poorer performance on roughly 1/2 the tasks and declines in WM accounted for poorer performance on 6 of the 8 psychoacoustic components. These results make clear the need to interpret age-group differences in performance on psychoacoustic tasks in light of cognitive declines commonly associated with aging, and point to hearing loss and cognitive declines as negatively influencing auditory perceptual skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jennifer J. Lentz
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Larry E. Humes
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
| | - Gary R. Kidd
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA
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5
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de Kerangal M, Vickers D, Chait M. The effect of healthy aging on change detection and sensitivity to predictable structure in crowded acoustic scenes. Hear Res 2020; 399:108074. [PMID: 33041093 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2020.108074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2020] [Revised: 08/01/2020] [Accepted: 09/01/2020] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
The auditory system plays a critical role in supporting our ability to detect abrupt changes in our surroundings. Here we study how this capacity is affected in the course of healthy ageing. Artifical acoustic 'scenes', populated by multiple concurrent streams of pure tones ('sources') were used to capture the challenges of listening in complex acoustic environments. Two scene conditions were included: REG scenes consisted of sources characterized by a regular temporal structure. Matched RAND scenes contained sources which were temporally random. Changes, manifested as the abrupt disappearance of one of the sources, were introduced to a subset of the trials and participants ('young' group N = 41, age 20-38 years; 'older' group N = 41, age 60-82 years) were instructed to monitor the scenes for these events. Previous work demonstrated that young listeners exhibit better change detection performance in REG scenes, reflecting sensitivity to temporal structure. Here we sought to determine: (1) Whether 'baseline' change detection ability (i.e. in RAND scenes) is affected by age. (2) Whether aging affects listeners' sensitivity to temporal regularity. (3) How change detection capacity relates to listeners' hearing and cognitive profile (a battery of tests that capture hearing and cognitive abilities hypothesized to be affected by aging). The results demonstrated that healthy aging is associated with reduced sensitivity to abrupt scene changes in RAND scenes but that performance does not correlate with age or standard audiological measures such as pure tone audiometry or speech in noise performance. Remarkably older listeners' change detection performance improved substantially (up to the level exhibited by young listeners) in REG relative to RAND scenes. This suggests that the ability to extract and track the regularity associated with scene sources, even in crowded acoustic environments, is relatively preserved in older listeners.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathilde de Kerangal
- Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1 X 8EE, UK
| | - Deborah Vickers
- Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1 X 8EE, UK; Cambridge Hearing Group, Clinical Neurosciences Department, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - Maria Chait
- Ear Institute, University College London, 332 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1 X 8EE, UK.
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Al Jaja A, Grahn JA, Herrmann B, MacDonald PA. The effect of aging, Parkinson's disease, and exogenous dopamine on the neural response associated with auditory regularity processing. Neurobiol Aging 2020; 89:71-82. [PMID: 32057529 DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.01.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2019] [Revised: 11/25/2019] [Accepted: 01/01/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
Processing regular patterns in auditory scenes is important for navigating complex environments. Electroencephalography studies find enhancement of sustained brain activity, correlating with the emergence of a regular pattern in sounds. How aging, aging-related diseases such as Parkinson's disease (PD), and treatment of PD with dopaminergic therapy affect this fundamental function remain unknown. We addressed this knowledge gap. Healthy younger and older adults and patients with PD listened to sounds that contained or were devoid of regular patterns. Healthy older adults and patients with PD were tested twice-off and on dopaminergic medication, in counterbalanced order. Regularity-evoked, sustained electroencephalography activity was reduced in older, compared with younger adults. Patients with PD and older controls evidenced comparable attenuation of the sustained response. Dopaminergic therapy further weakened the sustained response in both older controls and patients with PD. These findings suggest that fundamental regularity processing is impacted by aging but not specifically by PD. The finding that dopaminergic therapy attenuates rather than improves the sustained response coheres with the dopamine overdose response and is in line with previous findings that regularity processing implicates brain regions receiving dopamine from the ventral tegmental area that is relatively spared in PD and normal aging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abdullah Al Jaja
- The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Graduate Neuroscience Program, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Jessica A Grahn
- The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Björn Herrmann
- The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
| | - Penny A MacDonald
- The Brain and Mind Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; Department of Clinical Neurological Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
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7
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Alain C, Cusimano M, Garami L, Backer KC, Habelt B, Chan V, Hasher L. Age-related differences in orienting attention to sound object representations. Neurobiol Aging 2018; 66:1-11. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2018.01.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2017] [Revised: 01/30/2018] [Accepted: 01/31/2018] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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8
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Palomo P, Borrego A, Cebolla A, Llorens R, Demarzo M, Baños RM. Subjective, behavioral, and physiological responses to the rubber hand illusion do not vary with age in the adult phase. Conscious Cogn 2018; 58:90-96. [DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2017.10.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2016] [Revised: 10/18/2017] [Accepted: 10/18/2017] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
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9
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Normal Aging Slows Spontaneous Switching in Auditory and Visual Bistability. Neuroscience 2017; 389:152-160. [PMID: 28479403 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.04.040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/24/2017] [Accepted: 04/26/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Age-related changes in auditory and visual perception have an impact on the quality of life. It has been debated how perceptual organization is influenced by advancing age. From the neurochemical perspective, we investigated age effects on auditory and visual bistability. In perceptual bistability, a sequence of sensory inputs induces spontaneous switching between different perceptual objects. We used different modality tasks of auditory streaming and visual plaids. Young and middle-aged participants (20-60years) were instructed to indicate by a button press whenever their perception changed from one stable state to the other. The number of perceptual switches decreased with participants' ages. We employed magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure non-invasively concentrations of the inhibitory neurotransmitter (γ-aminobutyric acid, GABA) in the brain regions of interest. When participants were asked to voluntarily modulate their perception, the amount of effective volitional control was positively correlated with the GABA concentration in the auditory and motion-sensitive areas corresponding to each sensory modality. However, no correlation was found in the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex. In addition, effective volitional control was reduced with advancing age. Our results suggest that sequential scene analysis in auditory and visual domains is influenced by both age-related and neurochemical factors.
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10
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Rimmele JM, Sussman E, Poeppel D. The role of temporal structure in the investigation of sensory memory, auditory scene analysis, and speech perception: a healthy-aging perspective. Int J Psychophysiol 2015; 95:175-83. [PMID: 24956028 PMCID: PMC4272684 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2014.06.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2013] [Revised: 06/13/2014] [Accepted: 06/15/2014] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Listening situations with multiple talkers or background noise are common in everyday communication and are particularly demanding for older adults. Here we review current research on auditory perception in aging individuals in order to gain insights into the challenges of listening under noisy conditions. Informationally rich temporal structure in auditory signals--over a range of time scales from milliseconds to seconds--renders temporal processing central to perception in the auditory domain. We discuss the role of temporal structure in auditory processing, in particular from a perspective relevant for hearing in background noise, and focusing on sensory memory, auditory scene analysis, and speech perception. Interestingly, these auditory processes, usually studied in an independent manner, show considerable overlap of processing time scales, even though each has its own 'privileged' temporal regimes. By integrating perspectives on temporal structure processing in these three areas of investigation, we aim to highlight similarities typically not recognized.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Maria Rimmele
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
| | - Elyse Sussman
- Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Bronx, NY, United States
| | - David Poeppel
- Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, NY, United States; Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, Germany
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Alain C, Zendel BR, Hutka S, Bidelman GM. Turning down the noise: The benefit of musical training on the aging auditory brain. Hear Res 2014. [DOI: 10.10.1016/j.heares.2013.06.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
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12
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Alain C, Zendel BR, Hutka S, Bidelman GM. Turning down the noise: the benefit of musical training on the aging auditory brain. Hear Res 2013; 308:162-73. [PMID: 23831039 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2013.06.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 84] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/09/2013] [Revised: 06/19/2013] [Accepted: 06/24/2013] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Age-related decline in hearing abilities is a ubiquitous part of aging, and commonly impacts speech understanding, especially when there are competing sound sources. While such age effects are partially due to changes within the cochlea, difficulties typically exist beyond measurable hearing loss, suggesting that central brain processes, as opposed to simple peripheral mechanisms (e.g., hearing sensitivity), play a critical role in governing hearing abilities late into life. Current training regimens aimed to improve central auditory processing abilities have experienced limited success in promoting listening benefits. Interestingly, recent studies suggest that in young adults, musical training positively modifies neural mechanisms, providing robust, long-lasting improvements to hearing abilities as well as to non-auditory tasks that engage cognitive control. These results offer the encouraging possibility that musical training might be used to counteract age-related changes in auditory cognition commonly observed in older adults. Here, we reviewed studies that have examined the effects of age and musical experience on auditory cognition with an emphasis on auditory scene analysis. We infer that musical training may offer potential benefits to complex listening and might be utilized as a means to delay or even attenuate declines in auditory perception and cognition that often emerge later in life.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claude Alain
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Canada.
| | - Benjamin Rich Zendel
- International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS), Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada; Centre de Recherche, Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Stefanie Hutka
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Canada; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Canada
| | - Gavin M Bidelman
- Institute for Intelligent Systems & School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Memphis, USA
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Lesch MF, Powell WR, Horrey WJ, Wogalter MS. The use of contextual cues to improve warning symbol comprehension: making the connection for older adults. ERGONOMICS 2013; 56:1264-1279. [PMID: 23767856 PMCID: PMC3783898 DOI: 10.1080/00140139.2013.802019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/18/2012] [Revised: 04/24/2013] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
UNLABELLED This study teased apart the effects of comprehensibility and complexity on older adults' comprehension of warning symbols by manipulating the relevance of additional information in further refining the meaning of the symbol. Symbols were systematically altered such that increased visual complexity (in the form of contextual cues) resulted in increased comprehensibility. One hundred older adults, aged 50-71 years, were tested on their comprehension of these symbols before and after training. High comprehensibility-complexity symbols were found to be better understood than low- or medium-comprehensibility-complexity symbols and the effectiveness of the contextual cues varied as a function of training. Therefore, the nature of additional detail determines whether increased complexity is detrimental or beneficial to older adults' comprehension - if the additional details provide 'cues to knowledge', older adults' comprehension improves as a result of the increased complexity. However, some cues may require training in order to be effective. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY Research suggests that older adults have greater difficulty in understanding more complex symbols. However, we found that when the complexity of symbols was increased through the addition of contextual cues, older adults' comprehension actually improved. Contextual cues aid older adults in making the connection between the symbol and its referent.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mary F. Lesch
- Center for Behavioral Sciences, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA, USA
| | - W. Ryan Powell
- Center for Behavioral Sciences, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA, USA
- Center for Disability Research, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA, USA
| | - William J. Horrey
- Center for Behavioral Sciences, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, Hopkinton, MA, USA
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Hutka SA, Alain C, Binns MA, Bidelman GM. Age-related differences in the sequential organization of speech sounds. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2013; 133:4177-4187. [PMID: 23742369 DOI: 10.1121/1.4802745] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
This study investigated the effects of age on listeners' tendency to group speech tokens into one or two auditory streams. Younger and older adults were presented with sequences of four vowel sounds, which were arranged according to the proximity of first-formant frequencies between adjacent vowels. In Experiment 1, participants were less accurate in identifying the order of the four vowels and more likely to report hearing two streams when the first-formant alternated between low and high frequency and the overall difference between adjacent vowels was large. This effect of first-formant continuity on temporal order judgments and probability of hearing two streams was higher in younger than in older adults. In Experiment 2, participants indicated whether there was rhythm irregularity in an otherwise isochronous sequence of four vowels. Young adults' thresholds were lower when successive first-formants ascended or descended monotonically (condition promoting integration) than when they alternated discontinuously (condition promoting streaming). This effect was not observed in older adults whose thresholds were comparable for both types of vowel sequences. These two experiments provide converging evidence for an age-related deficit in exploiting first-formant information between consecutive vowels, which appear to impede older adults' ability to sequentially group speech sounds over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefanie A Hutka
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Center, 3560 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario M6A 2E1, Canada
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15
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Diaconescu AO, Hasher L, McIntosh AR. Visual dominance and multisensory integration changes with age. Neuroimage 2013; 65:152-66. [PMID: 23036447 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.09.057] [Citation(s) in RCA: 68] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/16/2012] [Revised: 09/23/2012] [Accepted: 09/24/2012] [Indexed: 10/27/2022] Open
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Gallun FJ, Diedesch AC, Beasley R. Impacts of age on memory for auditory intensity. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2012; 132:944-56. [PMID: 22894216 PMCID: PMC3427361 DOI: 10.1121/1.4731235] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
It is hypothesized that older listeners are more likely than younger listeners to be impaired when asked to make intensity judgments about target tones embedded in rapidly presented auditory sequences. This study examined this hypothesis by asking listeners ranging in age from 19 to 74 yr to make judgments of intensity based on narrowband noise bursts varying in frequency and intensity. In two experiments, listeners made intensity judgments of target bursts alone or embedded in sequences of bursts. In the first experiment, one of four fixed sequences was presented and had to be identified. In the second experiment, pre- or post-trial bursts acted as cues that identified the frequency of the target burst in the sequence. In both experiments, intensity discrimination thresholds for single bursts were good predictors of performance with sequences and were little affected by age. Significant negative relationships between age and accuracy were observed when single sequences had to be identified or a post-trial cue was used, but no age effects were apparent when a pre-trial cue was used. These data are interpreted as being consistent with previous suggestions that the aging process results in a decline in auditory memory capacity and/or internally generated selective attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Frederick J Gallun
- VA RR&D National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research, Portland VA Medical Center, 3710 SW US Veterans Hospital Road, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA.
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Lesch MF, Horrey WJ, Wogalter MS, Powell WR. Age-related differences in warning symbol comprehension and training effectiveness: effects of familiarity, complexity, and comprehensibility. ERGONOMICS 2011; 54:879-890. [PMID: 21973000 DOI: 10.1080/00140139.2011.606924] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
Age-related changes in selective attention, inhibitory efficiency, and the ability to form new associations suggest that older adults may have greater difficulty with more complex and less comprehensible symbols. We examined comprehension of symbols varying in terms of ratings of familiarity, complexity, and comprehensibility, by younger (aged 18-35) and older (aged 55-70) adults. It was found that older adults have greater difficulty than younger adults in comprehending warning symbols and that accident scenario training improves comprehension. Regression analyses indicated that familiarity and comprehensibility were important in determining performance on the pre-training comprehension test by both younger and older adults. However, training eliminated the effects of stimulus characteristics for younger adults, while older adults' comprehension continued to be significantly influenced by comprehensibility. We suggest that symbol design incorporates cues to knowledge to facilitate the linkage between new knowledge (i.e. the warning symbol) and relevant knowledge in long-term memory. Statement of Relevance: Symbol characteristics play an important role in age-related differences in warning symbol comprehension. To optimise comprehension by older adults, symbols should have a clear relationship with areal-world referent. Alternatively, symbol design could incorporate cues to knowledge to facilitate the linkage between new knowledge and relevant knowledge in long-term memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- M F Lesch
- Center for Behavioral Sciences, Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, 71 Frankland Road, Hopkinton, MA 01748, USA.
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Abstract
Modern vehicle cockpits have begun to incorporate a number of information-rich techno-logies, including systems to enhance and improve driving and navigation performance and also driving-irrelevant information systems. The visually intensive nature of the driving task requires these systems to adopt primarily nonvisual means of information display, and the auditory modality represents an obvious alternative to vision for interacting with in-vehicle technologies (IVTs). Although the literature on auditory displays has grown tremendously in recent decades, to date, few guidelines or recommendations exist to aid in the design of effective auditory displays for IVTs. This chapter provides an overview of the current state of research and practice with auditory displays for IVTs. The role of basic auditory capabilities and limitations as they relate to in-vehicle auditory display design are discussed. Extant systems and prototypes are reviewed, and when possible, design recommendations are made. Finally, research needs and an iterative design process to meet those needs are discussed.
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The effects of age and interaural delay on detecting a change in interaural correlation: The role of temporal jitter. Hear Res 2010; 275:139-49. [PMID: 21184818 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2010.12.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2010] [Revised: 12/07/2010] [Accepted: 12/13/2010] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Duration thresholds for detecting a change in interaural correlation (from 0 to 1, or from 1 to 0) in the initial portion of a 1-second, broadband noise (0-10 kHz) were determined for younger and older adults in a two-interval, two-alternative forced choice paradigm as a function of the interaural delay between the noise bursts presented to each ear. When the interaural delay was 0 ms, older adults found it harder to detect a change in correlation from 0 to 1 than from 1 to 0. For younger adults, however, this pattern was reversed. For interaural delays greater than 0 ms, both younger adults and older adults found it easier to detect a change in interaural correlation from 0 to 1 for short interaural delays (1 ms) with the reverse being true for longer interaural delays (5 ms). It is shown that this pattern of results is expected if temporal jitter (loss of neural synchrony in the auditory system) increases with age and with interaural delay. The implications of these results for age-related changes in stream segregation are discussed.
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Helfer KS, Chevalier J, Freyman RL. Aging, spatial cues, and single- versus dual-task performance in competing speech perception. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2010; 128:3625-3633. [PMID: 21218894 PMCID: PMC3037770 DOI: 10.1121/1.3502462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2010] [Revised: 09/22/2010] [Accepted: 09/22/2010] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Older individuals often report difficulty coping in situations with multiple conversations in which they at times need to "tune out" the background speech and at other times seek to monitor competing messages. The present study was designed to simulate this type of interaction by examining the cost of requiring listeners to perform a secondary task in conjunction with understanding a target talker in the presence of competing speech. The ability of younger and older adults to understand a target utterance was measured with and without requiring the listener to also determine how many masking voices were presented time-reversed. Also of interest was how spatial separation affected the ability to perform these two tasks. Older adults demonstrated slightly reduced overall speech recognition and obtained less spatial release from masking, as compared to younger listeners. For both younger and older listeners, spatial separation increased the costs associated with performing both tasks together. The meaningfulness of the masker had a greater detrimental effect on speech understanding for older participants than for younger participants. However, the results suggest that the problems experienced by older adults in complex listening situations are not necessarily due to a deficit in the ability to switch and/or divide attention among talkers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen S Helfer
- Department of Communication Disorders, University of Massachusetts, 358 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA.
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Heinrich A, Schneider BA. Elucidating the effects of ageing on remembering perceptually distorted word pairs. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2010; 64:186-205. [PMID: 20694922 DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2010.492621] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
We investigated the effects of age, background babble, and acoustic distortion of the word itself on serial position memory in a series of experiments involving six different auditory environments (quiet, and 12-talker background babble presented between, overlapping, or concurrent with word presentation or with two kinds of distortion applied to the words). To control for hearing, the level of babble or distortion was adjusted so that younger and older adults could hear the words equally well. Although the presence of continuous and word-flanking background babble adversely affected memory in the early serial positions in both age groups, only older adults' memory was adversely affected in the later serial positions. Moreover, younger adults' memory was not affected by acoustic word distortion, whereas one of the two types of temporal distortion adversely affected memory for later serial positions in older adults. The exact pattern of impairment and its interaction with age suggests that memory in older adults is more affected than that in younger adults in complex listening situations because they either need more time or have to employ more attentional resources to segregate different auditory streams, thereby depleting the pool of resources available for memory encoding.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antje Heinrich
- University of Toronto at Mississauga, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
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Saupe K, Koelsch S, Rübsamen R. Spatial selective attention in a complex auditory environment such as polyphonic music. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2010; 127:472-480. [PMID: 20058992 DOI: 10.1121/1.3271422] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/28/2023]
Abstract
To investigate the influence of spatial information in auditory scene analysis, polyphonic music (three parts in different timbres) was composed and presented in free field. Each part contained large falling interval jumps in the melody and the task of subjects was to detect these events in one part ("target part") while ignoring the other parts. All parts were either presented from the same location (0 degrees; overlap condition) or from different locations (-28 degrees, 0 degrees, and 28 degrees or -56 degrees, 0 degrees, and 56 degrees in the azimuthal plane), with the target part being presented either at 0 degrees or at one of the right-sided locations. Results showed that spatial separation of 28 degrees was sufficient for a significant improvement in target detection (i.e., in the detection of large interval jumps) compared to the overlap condition, irrespective of the position (frontal or right) of the target part. A larger spatial separation of the parts resulted in further improvements only if the target part was lateralized. These data support the notion of improvement in the suppression of interfering signals with spatial sound source separation. Additionally, the data show that the position of the relevant sound source influences auditory performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katja Saupe
- Department of Neurobiology, Institute of Biology II, University of Leipzig, Talstrasse 33, Leipzig D-04103, Germany.
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Helfer KS, Vargo M. Speech recognition and temporal processing in middle-aged women. J Am Acad Audiol 2009; 20:264-71. [PMID: 19927698 DOI: 10.3766/jaaa.20.4.6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study was designed to examine speech understanding ability and temporal processing in middle-aged women with normal or near-normal pure-tone thresholds. RESEARCH DESIGN Speech understanding, temporal processing ability, and self-assessed hearing were measured in groups of younger and middle-aged females. STUDY SAMPLE Participants were younger and middle-aged females (n = 12 per group) with normal hearing through 4000 Hz bilaterally. Subjects were drawn from nonclinical populations. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Speech understanding was measured in the presence of steady-state noise and competing speech, with and without perceived spatial separation of the target speech and masker. The Gaps-In-Noise (GIN) test (Musiek et al, 2005) was used to assess temporal resolution ability. In addition, subjects completed a questionnaire with several items from the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing Scale (Gatehouse and Noble, 2004) to gauge their subjective ability to understand speech in complex listening situations. Data were analyzed via repeated-measures ANOVA and Pearson r correlations. RESULTS Results showed that the performance of the middle-aged subjects was significantly poorer than that of the younger participants in the presence of a spatially coincident speech masker. Although performance in this listening condition was unrelated to pure-tone thresholds, it was strongly correlated with scores on the GIN test. Speech understanding performance in the presence of a steady-state masker was related to high-frequency pure-tone thresholds. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that some middle-aged women with little or no pure-tone hearing loss experience listening difficulty in complex environments. Results also suggest a strong relationship between temporal processing and speech understanding in certain competing speech situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen S Helfer
- University of Massachusetts, Department of Communication Disorders, 358 N. Pleasant St., Amherst, MA 01003, USA.
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Alain C, McDonald KL. Age-related differences in neuromagnetic brain activity underlying concurrent sound perception. J Neurosci 2007; 27:1308-14. [PMID: 17287505 PMCID: PMC6673581 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.5433-06.2007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 62] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Deficits in parsing concurrent auditory events are believed to contribute to older adults' difficulties in understanding speech in adverse listening conditions (e.g., cocktail party). To explore the level at which aging impairs sound segregation, we measured auditory evoked fields (AEFs) using magnetoencephalography while young, middle-aged, and older adults were presented with complex sounds that either had all of their harmonics in tune or had the third harmonic mistuned by 4 or 16% of its original value. During the recording, participants were asked to ignore the stimuli and watch a muted subtitled movie of their choice. For each participant, the AEFs were modeled with a pair of dipoles in the superior temporal plane, and the effects of age and mistuning were examined on the amplitude and latency of the resulting source waveforms. Mistuned stimuli generated an early positivity (60-100 ms), an object-related negativity (ORN) (140-180 ms) that overlapped the N1 and P2 waves, and a positive displacement that peaked at approximately 230 ms (P230) after sound onset. The early mistuning-related enhancement was similar in all three age groups, whereas the subsequent modulations (ORN and P230) were reduced in older adults. These age differences in auditory cortical activity were associated with a reduced likelihood of hearing two sounds as a function of mistuning. The results reveal that inharmonicity is rapidly and automatically registered in all three age groups but that the perception of concurrent sounds declines with age.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claude Alain
- Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre for Care, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6A 2E1.
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Jones SJ, Longe O, Vaz Pato M. Auditory evoked potentials to abrupt pitch and timbre change of complex tones: electrophysiological evidence of 'streaming'? ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY AND CLINICAL NEUROPHYSIOLOGY 1998; 108:131-42. [PMID: 9566626 DOI: 10.1016/s0168-5597(97)00077-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
Abstract
Examination of the cortical auditory evoked potentials to complex tones changing in pitch and timbre suggests a useful new method for investigating higher auditory processes, in particular those concerned with 'streaming' and auditory object formation. The main conclusions were: (i) the N1 evoked by a sudden change in pitch or timbre was more posteriorly distributed than the N1 at the onset of the tone, indicating at least partial segregation of the neuronal populations responsive to sound onset and spectral change; (ii) the T-complex was consistently larger over the right hemisphere, consistent with clinical and PET evidence for particular involvement of the right temporal lobe in the processing of timbral and musical material; (iii) responses to timbral change were relatively unaffected by increasing the rate of interspersed changes in pitch, suggesting a mechanism for detecting the onset of a new voice in a constantly modulated sound stream; (iv) responses to onset, offset and pitch change of complex tones were relatively unaffected by interfering tones when the latter were of a different timbre, suggesting these responses must be generated subsequent to auditory stream segregation.
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Affiliation(s)
- S J Jones
- The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, London, UK
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