Bimodal Stimulus Presentation and Expanded Auditory Bandwidth Improve Older Adults’ Speech Perception

Abstract Background Prevalence of hearing loss increases with age. Its estimated prevalence is 40–50 % in people over 75 years of age. Recent studies agree that declinein hearing threshold contribute to deterioration in sociality, sensitivity, cognition, and quality of life for elderly subjects. The aim of the study presented in this paper is to verify whether or not rehabilitation using first time applied Hearing Aids (HA) in a cohort of old people with hearing impairment improves both speech perception in a noisy environment over time and the overall health-related quality of life. Methods The monocentric, prospective, repeated measurements, single-subject, clinical observational study is to recruit 100 older adults, first-time HA recipients (≥ 65 years).The evaluation protocol is designed to analyze changes in specific measurement tools a year after the first HA usage in comparison with the evaluation before HA fitting. Evaluations will consist of multiparametric details collected through self-report questionnaires completed by the recipients and a series of commonly used audiometric measures and geriatric assessment tools. The primary indicator of changes in speech perception in noise to be used is the Italian version of Oldenburg Satz (OLSA) test whereas the indicator of changes in overall quality of life will be the Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL) and Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE) questionnaires. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) will help in screening the cognitive state of the subjects. Discussion The protocol is designed to make use of measurement tools that have already been applied to the hearing-impaired population in order to compare the effects of HA rehabilitation in the older adults immediately before first HA usage (Pre) and after 1 year of experience (Post). This broad approach will lead to a greater understanding of how useful hearing influences the quality of life in older individuals, and therefore improves potentials for healthy aging. The data is to be analyzed by using an intrasubject endpoint comparison. Outcomes will be described and analyzed in detail. Trial registration This research was retrospectively registered underno. NCT04333043at ClinicalTrials.gov (http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/) on the 26 March 2020. This research has been registered with the Ethics Committee of the Area Vasta Emilia Nord under number 104, date of approval 17/07/2017.

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Auditory Temporal Order Perception in Younger and Older Adults

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jslhr.4105.1052 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 41 (5) ◽

pp. 1052-1060 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

Peter J. Fitzgibbons ◽

Sandra Gordon-Salant

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Temporal Processing ◽

Discrimination Task ◽

Temporal Order ◽

Stimulus Presentation ◽

Complex Stimulus ◽

Frequency Range ◽

Identification Task ◽

Relative Pitch ◽

Single Sequence

This investigation examined the abilities of younger and older listeners to discriminate and identify temporal order of sounds presented in tonal sequences. It was hypothesized that older listeners would exhibit greater difficulty than younger listeners on both temporal processing tasks, particularly for complex stimulus patterns. It was also anticipated that tone order discrimination would be easier than tone order identification for all listeners. Listeners were younger and older adults with either normal hearing or mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing losses. Stimuli were temporally contiguous three-tone sequences within a 1/3 octave frequency range centered at 4000 Hz. For the discrimination task, listeners discerned differences between standard and comparison stimulus sequences that varied in tonal temporal order. For the identification task, listeners identified tone order of a single sequence using labels of relative pitch. Older listeners performed more poorly than younger listeners on the discrimination task for the more complex pitch patterns and on the identification task for faster stimulus presentation rates. The results also showed that order discrimination is easier than order identification for all listeners. The effects of hearing loss on the ordering tasks were minimal.

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The Effects of Cochlear Implantation on Speech Perception in Older Adults

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society ◽

10.1111/j.1532-5415.2010.03310.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 59 (3) ◽

pp. 446-453 ◽

Cited By ~ 65

Author(s):

Cameron L. Budenz ◽

Maura K. Cosetti ◽

Daniel H. Coelho ◽

Brad Birenbaum ◽

James Babb ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Speech Perception ◽

Cochlear Implantation

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Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease Benefit From Audiovisual Speech Cues and Supportive Sentence Context

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2021_jslhr-20-00402 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-10

Author(s):

Alexandre Chauvin ◽

Shari Baum ◽

Natalie A. Phillips

Keyword(s):

Alzheimer’S Disease ◽

Older Adults ◽

Alzheimer's Disease ◽

Cognitive Impairment ◽

Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽

Speech Perception ◽

Sentence Context ◽

Speech Perception In Noise ◽

Healthy Older Adults ◽

Speech Cues

Purpose Speech perception in noise becomes difficult with age but can be facilitated by audiovisual (AV) speech cues and sentence context in healthy older adults. However, individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) may present with deficits in AV integration, potentially limiting the extent to which they can benefit from AV cues. This study investigated the benefit of these cues in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), individuals with AD, and healthy older adult controls. Method This study compared auditory-only and AV speech perception of sentences presented in noise. These sentences had one of two levels of context: high (e.g., “Stir your coffee with a spoon”) and low (e.g., “Bob didn't think about the spoon”). Fourteen older controls ( M age = 72.71 years, SD = 9.39), 13 individuals with MCI ( M age = 79.92 years, SD = 5.52), and nine individuals with probable Alzheimer's-type dementia ( M age = 79.38 years, SD = 3.40) completed the speech perception task and were asked to repeat the terminal word of each sentence. Results All three groups benefited (i.e., identified more terminal words) from AV and sentence context. Individuals with MCI showed a smaller AV benefit compared to controls in low-context conditions, suggesting difficulties with AV integration. Individuals with AD showed a smaller benefit in high-context conditions compared to controls, indicating difficulties with AV integration and context use in AD. Conclusions Individuals with MCI and individuals with AD do benefit from AV speech and semantic context during speech perception in noise (albeit to a lower extent than healthy older adults). This suggests that engaging in face-to-face communication and providing ample context will likely foster more effective communication between patients and caregivers, professionals, and loved ones.

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ERP correlates of auditory goal-directed behavior of younger and older adults in a dynamic speech perception task

Behavioural Brain Research ◽

10.1016/j.bbr.2014.10.026 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 278 ◽

pp. 435-445 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Stephan Getzmann ◽

Michael Falkenstein ◽

Edmund Wascher

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Speech Perception ◽

Perception Task ◽

Goal Directed Behavior

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Rapid Perceptual Learning: A Potential Source of Individual Differences in Speech Perception Under Adverse Conditions?

Trends in Hearing ◽

10.1177/2331216520930541 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 24 ◽

pp. 233121652093054 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tali Rotman ◽

Limor Lavie ◽

Karen Banai

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Young Adults ◽

Individual Differences ◽

Speech Perception ◽

Perceptual Learning ◽

Rapid Learning ◽

Adverse Conditions ◽

Speech In Noise ◽

Age Related ◽

Age Related Hearing Loss

Challenging listening situations (e.g., when speech is rapid or noisy) result in substantial individual differences in speech perception. We propose that rapid auditory perceptual learning is one of the factors contributing to those individual differences. To explore this proposal, we assessed rapid perceptual learning of time-compressed speech in young adults with normal hearing and in older adults with age-related hearing loss. We also assessed the contribution of this learning as well as that of hearing and cognition (vocabulary, working memory, and selective attention) to the recognition of natural-fast speech (NFS; both groups) and speech in noise (younger adults). In young adults, rapid learning and vocabulary were significant predictors of NFS and speech in noise recognition. In older adults, hearing thresholds, vocabulary, and rapid learning were significant predictors of NFS recognition. In both groups, models that included learning fitted the speech data better than models that did not include learning. Therefore, under adverse conditions, rapid learning may be one of the skills listeners could employ to support speech recognition.

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