Reexamination of the age-related sensitivity decrease in ISO 7029: Do the Japanese have better hearing sensitivity?

Recent animal studies suggest that millions of people may be at risk of permanent impairment from cochlear synaptopathy, the age-related and noise-induced degeneration of neural connections in the inner ear that “hides” behind a normal audiogram. This study examines electrophysiological responses to clicks in a large cohort of subjects with normal hearing sensitivity. The resultant correlations with word recognition performance are consistent with an important contribution cochlear neural damage to deficits in hearing in noise abilities.

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Hearing Disorders and Sensorineural Aging

Journal of Geriatrics ◽

10.1155/2014/602909 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 ◽

pp. 1-6

Author(s):

Alessandra Fioretti ◽

Otello Poli ◽

Theodoros Varakliotis ◽

Alberto Eibenstein

Keyword(s):

Hearing Loss ◽

Organ Of Corti ◽

Physiological Age ◽

Hearing Disorders ◽

Hearing Sensitivity ◽

Age Related ◽

Loss Of Autonomy ◽

Central Auditory Function ◽

Central Auditory Pathways ◽

Age Related Hearing Loss

The physiological age-related hearing loss is defined as presbycusis and it is characterized by reduced hearing sensitivity and problems in understanding spoken language especially in a noisy environment. In elderly the reduced speech recognition is generally caused by a reduction of the cochlear cells in the organ of Corti and degeneration of the central auditory pathways. In order to have a complete management strategy of central and peripheral presbycusis the diagnostic evaluation should include clinical ENT examination, standard audiological tests, and tests of central auditory function. Treatment should include not only the appropriate instruments for peripheral compensation but also auditory rehabilitative training and counseling to prevent social isolation and loss of autonomy. Other common hearing disorders in elderly are tinnitus and hyperacusis which are often undervalued. Tinnitus is characterized by the perception of a “phantom” sound due to abnormal auditory perception. Hyperacusis is defined as a reduced tolerance to ordinary environmental sounds. Furthermore auditory, visual, nociceptive, and proprioceptive systems may be involved together in a possible context of “sensorineural aging.” The aim of this review is to underline the presence of hearing disorders like tinnitus and hyperacusis which in many cases coexist with hearing loss in elderly.

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Recommendations for Cancer Prevention Trials Using Potentially Ototoxic Test Agents

Journal of Clinical Oncology ◽

10.1200/jco.2001.19.6.1658 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 19 (6) ◽

pp. 1658-1663 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Lawrence I. Shotland ◽

Frank G. Ondrey ◽

Kristen A. Mayo ◽

Jaye L. Viner

Keyword(s):

Clinical Care ◽

Standardize Patient ◽

Adverse Event Reporting ◽

Hearing Sensitivity ◽

Age Related ◽

Baltimore Longitudinal Study ◽

Investigational Agents ◽

Audiologic Testing ◽

Pharmacologic Agents

PURPOSE: Preventive oncology applies pharmacologic agents to reverse, retard, or halt progression of neoplastic cells to invasive malignancy, a process that may require administration of agents over long periods of time. Although ototoxicity may be a tolerable side effect of anticancer or antimicrobial therapy, even modest ototoxicity may not be acceptable in agents developed for preventive oncology that are routinely administered to subjects who neither are, nor necessarily will become, clinically ill.MATERIALS AND METHODS: Age-related shifts in hearing may occur over the course of longterm or open-ended therapy; consequently, age-adjusted norms enable researchers to better distinguish hearing loss caused by drugs from that caused by aging. Norms for hearing sensitivity are derived from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging and are the basis for the proposed audiologic monitoring recommendations.RESULTS: Audiologic monitoring recommendations are presented that standardize patient selection, adverse event reporting, posttreatment follow-up, and audiologic testing for potentially ototoxic investigational agents.CONCLUSION: These recommendations are applicable to trials of investigational agents as well as various classes of drugs used in routine clinical care.

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Screening Methods for Age-Related Hearing Loss in Older Patients with Cancer: A Review of the Literature

Geriatrics ◽

10.3390/geriatrics3030048 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 48 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michelle Lycke ◽

Tessa Lefebvre ◽

Lieselot Cool ◽

Koen Van Eygen ◽

Tom Boterberg ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Of Life ◽

Hearing Loss ◽

Older Patients ◽

Cumulative Effect ◽

Screening Methods ◽

Hearing Sensitivity ◽

Patients With Cancer ◽

Age Related ◽

Age Related Hearing Loss

As people grow older, they may experience loss in hearing sensitivity. Age-related hearing loss may negatively affect the patient’s quality of life as it may lead to social isolation. In older patients with cancer, hearing loss can seriously interfere with the patient’s ability to deal properly with all aspects of their disease, and may have a cumulative effect on their already decreased quality of life. Therefore, the proper screening of those conditions is essential in order to optimise the patient’s comfort during and after treatment. This review article aims at providing a concise image of the nature of age-related hearing loss, and provides an overview of the screening methods that could be used in older patients with cancer.

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Temporal Integration of the Contralateral Acoustic Reflex Threshold for a 1000 Hz Tonal Activator and Its Age-Related Changes

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology ◽

10.3766/jaaa.20.4.2 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 20 (04) ◽

pp. 225-228 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michele B. Emmer ◽

Shlomo Silman ◽

Carol A. Silverman ◽

Harry Levitt

Keyword(s):

Temporal Integration ◽

Age Effect ◽

Broadband Noise ◽

Hearing Level ◽

Acoustic Reflex ◽

Hearing Sensitivity ◽

Age Related ◽

Main Effect ◽

Reflex Threshold ◽

Acoustic Reflex Threshold

Background: Previous research has noted an age effect on the temporal integration of the acoustic reflex for a noise activator. Purpose: To determine whether the age effect earlier noted for a noise activator will be noted for a tonal activator. Research Design: Comparison of ARTs of younger and older groups at activating stimulus durations of 12, 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 500, and 1000 msec. Study Sample: Two groups of adults with normal-hearing sensitivity: one group of 20 young adults (ten males and ten females, ages 18–29 years, with a mean age of 24 years) and one group of 20 older adults (ten males and ten females, ages 59–75 years, with a mean age of 67.5 years). Results: A significant main effect for duration was obtained. That is, as the duration increased, the acoustic reflex threshold for the 1000 Hz tonal activator decreased. The interactions of duration × age group and duration × hearing level were not significant. There was a nonsignificant main effect (p = .889) for the between-subjects factor of age. Conclusion: Results contradict the findings for broadband noise.

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Aging Degrades the Neural Encoding of Simple and Complex Sounds in the Human Brainstem

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology ◽

10.3766/jaaa.24.7.7 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 24 (07) ◽

pp. 590-599 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

Christopher G. Clinard ◽

Kelly L. Tremblay

Keyword(s):

Phase Coherence ◽

Neural Representation ◽

Neural Encoding ◽

Aging Effects ◽

Complex Sounds ◽

Frequency Following Response ◽

Hearing Sensitivity ◽

Normal Limits ◽

Age Related ◽

Impaired Speech

Background: Older adults, with or without normal peripheral hearing sensitivity, have difficulty understanding speech. This impaired speech perception may, in part, be due to desynchronization affecting the neural representation of acoustic features. Here we determine if phase-locked neural activity generating the brainstem frequency-following response (FFR) exhibits age-related desynchronization and how this degradation affects the neural representation of simple and complex sounds. Purpose: The objectives of this study were to (1) characterize the effects of age on the neural representation of simple tones and complex consonant-vowel stimuli, (2) determine if sustained and transient components of the FFR are differentially affected by age, and (3) determine if the inability to encode a simple signal predicts degradation in representation for complex speech signals. Research Design: Correlational Study Sample: Thirty four adults (aged 22–77 yr) with hearing thresholds falling within normal limits. Data Collection and Analysis: Stimuli used to evoke FFRs were 1000 Hz tone bursts as well as a consonant-vowel /da/ sound. Results: The neural representation of simple (tone) and complex (/da/) stimuli declines with advancing age. Tone-FFR phase coherence decreased as chronological age increased. For the consonant-vowel FFRs, transient onset and offset response amplitudes were smaller, and offset responses were delayed with age. Sustained responses at the onset of vowel periodicity were prolonged in latency and smaller in amplitude as age increased. FFT amplitude of the consonant-vowel FFR fundamental frequency did not significantly decline with increasing age. The ability to encode a simple signal was related to degradation in the neural representation of a complex, speechlike sound. Tone-FFR phase coherence was significantly related to the later vowel response components but not the earlier vowel components. Conclusions: FFR components representing the tone and consonant-vowel /da/ stimulus were negatively affected by age, showing age-related reductions in response synchrony and amplitude, as well as prolonged latencies. These aging effects were evident in middle age, even in the absence of significant hearing loss.

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Dichotic Word Recognition in Young and Older Adults

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology ◽

10.3766/jaaa.17.4.2 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 17 (04) ◽

pp. 230-240 ◽

Cited By ~ 38

Author(s):

Christina M. Roup ◽

Terry L. Wiley ◽

Richard H. Wilson

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Young Adults ◽

Word Recognition ◽

Auditory Processing ◽

Recognition Performance ◽

Directed Attention ◽

Hearing Sensitivity ◽

Age Related ◽

Group A ◽

Right Ear Advantage

Dichotic word recognition was evaluated in free-recall, directed-attention right, and directed-attention left response conditions. All participants were right-handed and included a group of young adults with normal hearing and two groups of older adults with sensorineural hearing loss. Dichotic word recognition performance was best for young adults and decreased for each older group. A right-ear advantage (REA) was observed for all groups. REAs observed in the older groups were larger than those for the young adults, resulting from a greater deficit in dichotic word recognition performance for words presented to the left ear. A subset of older adults exhibited few to no responses (≤3/100) for the left ear for all response conditions, which may relate to a compromise in auditory processing. The results support an age-related disadvantage in recognition performance for dichotic stimuli presented to the left ear not entirely accounted for by differences in hearing sensitivity between subject groups.

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Envelope following responses predict speech-in-noise performance in normal-hearing listeners

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00620.2020 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 125 (4) ◽

pp. 1213-1222

Author(s):

Anita M. Mepani ◽

Sarah Verhulst ◽

Kenneth E. Hancock ◽

Markus Garrett ◽

Viacheslav Vasilkov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Recognition Performance ◽

Normal Hearing ◽

Noise Performance ◽

Neural Connections ◽

Hearing Sensitivity ◽

Speech In Noise ◽

Neural Damage ◽

Hearing In Noise ◽

Age Related ◽

Electrophysiological Responses

Recent studies suggest that millions of people may be at risk of permanent impairment from cochlear synaptopathy, the age-related and noise-induced degeneration of neural connections in the inner ear. This study examines electrophysiological responses to stimuli designed to improve detection of neural damage in subjects with normal hearing sensitivity. The resultant correlations with word recognition performance are consistent with a contribution of cochlear neural damage to deficits in hearing in noise abilities.

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Temporal Factors and Speech Recognition Performance in Young and Elderly Listeners

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/jshr.3606.1276 ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 36 (6) ◽

pp. 1276-1285 ◽

Cited By ~ 259

Author(s):

Sandra Gordon-Salant ◽

Peter J. Fitzgibbons

Keyword(s):

Speech Recognition ◽

Temporal Processing ◽

Recognition Performance ◽

Duration Discrimination ◽

Related Factors ◽

Auditory Temporal Processing ◽

Percent Correct ◽

Hearing Sensitivity ◽

Age Related ◽

Processing Abilities

This study investigated factors that contribute to deficits of elderly listeners in recognizing speech that is degraded by temporal waveform distortion. Young and elderly listeners with normal hearing sensitivity and with mild-to-moderate, sloping sensorineural hearing losses were evaluated. Low-predictability (LP) sentences from the Revised Speech Perception in Noise test (R-SPIN) (Bilger, Nuetzel, Rabinowitz, & Rzeczkowski, 1984) were presented to subjects in undistorted form and in three forms of distortion: time compression, reverberation, and interruption. Percent-correct recognition scores indicated that age and hearing impairment contributed independently to deficits in recognizing all forms of temporally distorted speech. In addition, subjects’ auditory temporal processing abilities were assessed on duration discrimination and gap detection tasks. Canonical correlation procedures showed that some of the suprathreshold temporal processing measures, especially gap duration discrimination, contributed to the ability to recognize reverberant speech. The overall conclusion is that age-related factors other than peripheral hearing loss contribute to diminished speech recognition performance of elderly listeners.

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Associations of Hearing Sensitivity, Higher-Order Auditory Processing, and Cognition Over Time in Middle-Aged Adults

The Journals of Gerontology Series A ◽

10.1093/gerona/glz189 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 75 (3) ◽

pp. 545-551 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Natascha Merten ◽

Mary E Fischer ◽

Ted S Tweed ◽

Monique M B Breteler ◽

Karen J Cruickshanks

Keyword(s):

Test Performance ◽

Auditory Processing ◽

Pure Tone Audiometry ◽

Higher Order ◽

Linear Regression Models ◽

Middle Aged ◽

Hearing Sensitivity ◽

Age Related ◽

Middle Aged Adults ◽

Over Time

Abstract Background Age-related hearing loss (impairment in hearing sensitivity and/or higher-order auditory processing) and cognitive decline are common co-occurring impairments in elderly adults. Their relation in the process of aging remains insufficiently understood. We aim to assess the temporal relations of decline in hearing sensitivity, higher-order auditory processing, and cognition in middle-aged adults. Methods This study included 1,274 Beaver Dam Offspring Study participants who participated in three examinations (baseline, 5-year, and 10-year follow-up). We assessed hearing sensitivity through pure-tone audiometry (PTA, averaged thresholds of 0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz of the better ear), higher-order auditory processing as word recognition in competing message (WRCM) using the Northwestern University 6 word list in the better ear, and cognition through trail-making test performance (TMT). Linear mixed-effects models and linear regression models were used to determine associations over time and to what extent these measures influence each other over time. Results The longitudinal decline between all functions was associated with the strongest relationships between PTA and WRCM. The effect of baseline PTA on WRCM 10 years later (standardized ß = –.30) was almost twice as big as the effect of baseline WRCM on PTA 10 years later (standardized ß = –.18). The effect of baseline WRCM on TMT 10 years later and vice versa were small (standardized ß = –.05). No directional relationship between PTA and TMT was identified (standardized ß ≤ .02). Conclusions While hearing sensitivity might affect higher-order auditory processing, associations between hearing and cognition appear bidirectional and weak in midlife. We need to be cautious before inferring causal effects of hearing on cognition.

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