What does successful speech-in-noise perception in aging depend on? Electrophysiological correlates of high and low performance in older adults

40‐Hz oscillations underlying perceptual binding in young and older adults

“…The correlation should not be interpreted as redundancy that P2 and 40-Hz oscillation reflect a single process; following the principle of parsimony, it seems more likely that the responses reflect two different aspects of a common process, which calls for further research for clarification. Our P2 results are consistent with recent findings of larger P2 amplitudes in high-performing compared to poorly performing elderly listeners (Getzmann, Wascher, & Falkenstein, 2015), which had been interpreted as indicating the ability to allocate resources for compensatory mechanisms.…”

Electrophysiological correlates of cocktail-party listening

“…Furthermore, a significant correlation of N2 amplitude and performance in language understanding was found in younger adults: participants showing a pronounced N2 detected more target words in the presence of concurrent speech than those showing an only marginal N2. This relationship was interpreted as evidence that the N2 reflects processes of attentional and inhibitory control, required for filtering of task-relevant information out of a mixture of stimuli [41]. The N2d observed in the present study as the difference potential of multiple-sources and single-source conditions may thus reflect the extra effort required for detection of the target information.…”

“…In the auditory domain, the N2 has been related to conflict processing or inhibitory control of irrelevant information [38][39][40]. In line with this interpretation, a recent study of language understanding under "cocktail-party" conditions found a pronounced N2 when the task-relevant speech information was presented simultaneously with concurrent speech stimuli and no clear N2 when the target was presented in silence [41]. Furthermore, a significant correlation of N2 amplitude and performance in language understanding was found in younger adults: participants showing a pronounced N2 detected more target words in the presence of concurrent speech than those showing an only marginal N2.…”

Cingulo-Opercular Function During Word Recognition in Noise for Older Adults with Hearing Loss

“…People with high frequency hearing loss that is characteristic of sensory presbyacusis may experience limited cingulo-opercular benefit because of structural declines in auditory cortex (Eckert et al, 2012), which would be expected to limit modulatory gain and benefit from attention systems during controlled auditory processing (Alain et al, 2004; Getzmann et al, 2015). Alternatively, people with low frequency hearing loss that is characteristic of metabolic presbyacusis may experience limited cingulo-opercular benefit because of small vessel disease that appears to affect the inner ear and frontal cortex (Eckert et al, 2013), which could limit the use of attention systems (Eckert, 2011; Kennedy & Raz, 2009).…”

“…With advancing age and hearing loss, older adults are thought to increasingly depend on controlled auditory processes during speech recognition in noise, as opposed to automatic processing of intelligible speech (Alain, McDonald, Ostroff, & Schneider, 2004; Getzmann, Wascher, & Falkenstein, 2015), particularly when information must be reconstructed from an acoustically degraded speech signal (McCoy et al, 2005; Rönnberg, Rudner, Lunner, & Zekveld, 2010; Wingfield et al, 2005). The current project was designed to characterize the impact of hearing loss on neural control systems that support speech recognition in noise (Erb & Obleser, 2013; Obleser, Wise, Dresner, & Scott, 2007; Wild et al, 2012).…”