A comparison of bottom-up and top-down training approaches: Brain responses as objective outcome measures of auditory training for improving speech perception in noise.
Final Report Abstract
To disentangle the underlying neural mechanism of speech-in-noise (SIN) perception during a listening training intervention with older adults was one major focus of current research project. As we are aging, speech intelligibility decline, and listening and understanding in noisy environment becomes extremely effortful and challenging. Beside ageing-related hearing loss as the most prominent cause, changes in central auditory processing and cognitive declines contribute to SIN deficits in the older age. After a four-week listening training, based on syllable identification in noise and sentences repetition in noise, older adult listeners with moderate hearing loss were able to better recognize speech sounds within a higher Speech-to-Noise-Ratio (SNR). Whereas older listener with normal hearing and mild hearing loss were able to correctly recognize speech even in a lower SNR at the end of the training. The EEG recorded evoked responses for speech discrimination showed associations with the SIN performances at the perceptional level (P2), while sensation related responses were normal (P1 and N1). The mismatch-negativity recorded differences-waves were smaller for participants with poorer SIN performances performance compared to the good performer. Current evidence for the efficacy of auditory training to improve SIN recognition needs still to be established as results are not sufficiently consistent. Our project contributes to the need for more high-quality research to improve and optimize clinical and auditory rehabilitation processes for the older generation with aging-related hearing loss.
Publications
- (2019). Speech-recognition training in elderly listeners. Poster Presentation at the Hearing Loss Conference, Mai 2019, Niagara On the Lake, ON, Canada
Schumann, A., Wasim, A., Wu, E.
- (2020). Speech-in-noise understanding in older age: The role of inhibitory cortical responses. The European journal of neuroscience, 51(3), 891–908
Ross, B., Dobri, S., Schumann, A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.14573) - (2020). Speech-recognition training in older listeners. Poster Presentation at the Annaual meeting of the 'German Association of Audiology', DGA, September, Koeln
Schumann, A., Hamzai, H., Baldassini, J., Ross, B.
