The Peripheral Hearing and Central Auditory Processing Skills of Individuals With Subjective Memory Complaints

Abstract

This study examined the central auditory processing (CAP) assessment results of adults between 45 and 85 years of age with probable pre-clinical Alzheimer's disease-i.e., individuals with subjective memory complaints (SMCs) as compared to those who were not reporting significant levels of memory complaints (non-SMCs). It was hypothesized that the SMC group would perform significantly poorer on tests of central auditory skills compared to participants with non-SMCs (control group). Methods: A total of 95 participants were recruited from the larger Western Australia Memory Study and were classified as SMCs (N = 61; 20 males and 41 females, mean age 71.47 ±7.18 years) and non-SMCs (N = 34; 10 males, 24 females, mean age 68.85 ±7.69 years). All participants completed a peripheral hearing assessment, a CAP assessment battery including Dichotic Digits, Duration Pattern Test, Dichotic Sentence Identification, Synthetic Sentence Identification with Ipsilateral Competing Message (SSI-ICM) and the Quick-Speech-in-Noise, and a cognitive screening assessment. Results: The SMCs group performed significantly poorer than the control group on SSI-ICM −10 and −20 dB signal-to-noise conditions. No significant differences were found between the two groups on the peripheral hearing threshold measurements and other CAP assessments. Conclusions: The results suggest that individuals with SMCs perform poorly on specific CAP assessments in comparison to the controls. The poor CAP in SMC individuals may result in a higher cost to their finite pool of cognitive resources. The CAP results

Understanding the Relationship Between Age-Related Hearing Loss and Alzheimer’s Disease: A Narrative Review

“…Reduced performance in the SSI-ICM test has been observed in people with MCI and AD, indicating that sensory integration and auditory processing are impaired in those with AD related cognitive decline [ 168, 173, 181 ]. Interestingly, SSI-ICM test performance has also been shown to be significantly poorer in people with SCD in comparison to those without SCD [ 185 ]. While more research is needed to fully establish the reliability and accuracy of SSI-ICM in differentiating between SCD and non-SCD participants, there is evidence to suggest that this CAP test could have the potential to identify probable pre-clinical AD.…”

Hearing Loss and Cognition: What We Know and Where We Need to Go

“…Investigation of various means to define and measure central auditory function suggest an association with subjective memory complaints/impairment ( Idrizbegovic et al, 2011 ; Fausto et al, 2018 ). In a small sample, subjective memory complaints were associated with poor performance on certain central auditory processing evaluations but not with peripheral hearing ability ( Jayakody et al, 2020 ), potentially further supporting speech-in-noise difficulty as a marker of cognitive function. Yet proper implementation of this information for dementia prevention and intervention remains unclarified.…”

Pure Tone Audiometry and Hearing Loss in Alzheimer's Disease: A Meta-Analysis

“…As AD remains incurable, promotion of healthy lifestyle and reduction of modifiable risk factors remain the most practical and cost-effective methods of addressing the disease (Khalsa, 2015;Hubbard et al, 2018;Jongsiriyanyong and Limpawattana, 2018;Mattson and Arumugam, 2018;Bhatti et al, 2020;Gregory et al, 2020). To reduce the negative impacts of ARHL on AD, determination of whether treatment of peripheral auditory processing, central auditory processing, or some combination of both, is necessary (Ralli et al, 2019;Xu et al, 2019;Jayakody et al, 2020;Johnson et al, 2021;Knopke et al, 2021). Characterization of peripheral and central hearing ability in patients with AD using a variety of assessment modalities is crucial for understanding the relationship between ARHL and AD (Xu et al, 2019;Jayakody et al, 2020).…”

“…To reduce the negative impacts of ARHL on AD, determination of whether treatment of peripheral auditory processing, central auditory processing, or some combination of both, is necessary (Ralli et al, 2019;Xu et al, 2019;Jayakody et al, 2020;Johnson et al, 2021;Knopke et al, 2021). Characterization of peripheral and central hearing ability in patients with AD using a variety of assessment modalities is crucial for understanding the relationship between ARHL and AD (Xu et al, 2019;Jayakody et al, 2020). Especially as the relationship between peripheral and central auditory processing in relation to AD remains unclear (Swords et al, 2018).…”

“…Despite the many epidemiological studies that suggest a link between ARHL and the later development of AD (Uhlmann et al, 1989;Strouse and Hall, 1995;Quaranta et al, 2014;Bidelman et al, 2017;Haggstrom et al, 2018;Jayakody et al, 2018Jayakody et al, , 2020Panza et al, 2018;Ray et al, 2018;Brewster et al, 2020;Sardone et al, 2021), fewer cohort studies have found a statistically significant difference in pure tone hearing thresholds between AD and control subjects (Wang et al, 2005(Wang et al, , 2007Gimeno-Vilar and Cervera-Paz, 2010;Idrizbegovic et al, 2011;Lin et al, 2011Lin et al, , 2013Lodeiro-Fernandez et al, 2015;Villeneuve et al, 2017;Haggstrom et al, 2018;Hardy et al, 2019). Most of these studies had small sample sizes and were underpowered when detecting a difference in hearing thresholds (Wang et al, 2005(Wang et al, , 2007Gimeno-Vilar and Cervera-Paz, 2010;Idrizbegovic et al, 2011;Lin et al, 2011Lin et al, , 2013Lodeiro-Fernandez et al, 2015;Villeneuve et al, 2017;Haggstrom et al, 2018;Hardy et al, 2019).…”