95
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Age-group differences in speech identification despite matched audiometrically normal hearing: contributions from auditory temporal processing and cognition

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Hearing loss with increasing age adversely affects the ability to understand speech, an effect that results partly from reduced audibility. The aims of this study were to establish whether aging reduces speech intelligibility for listeners with normal audiograms, and, if so, to assess the relative contributions of auditory temporal and cognitive processing. Twenty-one older normal-hearing (ONH; 60–79 years) participants with bilateral audiometric thresholds ≤ 20 dB HL at 0.125–6 kHz were matched to nine young (YNH; 18–27 years) participants in terms of mean audiograms, years of education, and performance IQ. Measures included: (1) identification of consonants in quiet and in noise that was unmodulated or modulated at 5 or 80 Hz; (2) identification of sentences in quiet and in co-located or spatially separated two-talker babble; (3) detection of modulation of the temporal envelope (TE) at frequencies 5–180 Hz; (4) monaural and binaural sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS); (5) various cognitive tests. Speech identification was worse for ONH than YNH participants in all types of background. This deficit was not reflected in self-ratings of hearing ability. Modulation masking release (the improvement in speech identification obtained by amplitude modulating a noise background) and spatial masking release (the benefit obtained from spatially separating masker and target speech) were not affected by age. Sensitivity to TE and TFS was lower for ONH than YNH participants, and was correlated positively with speech-in-noise (SiN) identification. Many cognitive abilities were lower for ONH than YNH participants, and generally were correlated positively with SiN identification scores. The best predictors of the intelligibility of SiN were composite measures of cognition and TFS sensitivity. These results suggest that declines in speech perception in older persons are partly caused by cognitive and perceptual changes separate from age-related changes in audiometric sensitivity.

          Related collections

          Most cited references241

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          Ageing populations: the challenges ahead.

          If the pace of increase in life expectancy in developed countries over the past two centuries continues through the 21st century, most babies born since 2000 in France, Germany, Italy, the UK, the USA, Canada, Japan, and other countries with long life expectancies will celebrate their 100th birthdays. Although trends differ between countries, populations of nearly all such countries are ageing as a result of low fertility, low immigration, and long lives. A key question is: are increases in life expectancy accompanied by a concurrent postponement of functional limitations and disability? The answer is still open, but research suggests that ageing processes are modifiable and that people are living longer without severe disability. This finding, together with technological and medical development and redistribution of work, will be important for our chances to meet the challenges of ageing populations.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Population-based norms for the Mini-Mental State Examination by age and educational level.

            To report the distribution of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores by age and educational level. National Institute of Mental Health Epidemiologic Catchment Area Program surveys conducted between 1980 and 1984. Community populations in New Haven, Conn; Baltimore, Md; St Louis, Mo; Durham, NC; and Los Angeles, Calif. A total of 18,056 adult participants selected by probability sampling within census tracts and households. Summary scores for the MMSE are given in the form of mean, median, and percentile distributions specific for age and educational level. The MMSE scores were related to both age and educational level. There was an inverse relationship between MMSE scores and age, ranging from a median of 29 for those 18 to 24 years of age, to 25 for individuals 80 years of age and older. The median MMSE score was 29 for individuals with at least 9 years of schooling, 26 for those with 5 to 8 years of schooling, and 22 for those with 0 to 4 years of schooling. Cognitive performance as measured by the MMSE varies within the population by age and education. The cause of this variation has yet to be determined. Mini-Mental State Examination scores should be used to identify current cognitive difficulties and not to make formal diagnoses. The results presented should prove to be useful to clinicians who wish to compare an individual patient's MMSE scores with a population reference group and to researchers making plans for new studies in which cognitive status is a variable of interest.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: not found
              • Article: not found

              Working memory

              A Baddeley (1992)
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                Front Aging Neurosci
                Front Aging Neurosci
                Front. Aging Neurosci.
                Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
                Frontiers Media S.A.
                1663-4365
                13 January 2015
                2014
                : 6
                : 347
                Affiliations
                [1] 1MRC Institute of Hearing Research Nottingham, UK
                [2] 2Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge Cambridge, UK
                [3] 3School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester Manchester, UK
                [4] 4Central Manchester NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust Manchester, UK
                Author notes

                Edited by: Katherine Roberts, University of Warwick, UK

                Reviewed by: Jerker Rönnberg, Linköping University, Sweden; Larry E. Humes, Indiana University, USA; Tim Schoof, University College London, UK

                *Correspondence: Christian Füllgrabe, MRC Institute of Hearing Research, Science Road, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK e-mail: christian.fullgrabe@ 123456ihr.mrc.ac.uk

                This article was submitted to the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

                Article
                10.3389/fnagi.2014.00347
                4292733
                25628563
                758b7324-a8a6-4fd4-867f-bfdb12405446
                Copyright © 2015 Füllgrabe, Moore and Stone.

                This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

                History
                : 03 November 2014
                : 23 December 2014
                Page count
                Figures: 12, Tables: 2, Equations: 0, References: 215, Pages: 25, Words: 21288
                Categories
                Neuroscience
                Original Research Article

                Neurosciences
                aging,normal hearing,speech identification,temporal envelope,temporal fine structure,cognition

                Comments

                Comment on this article