scholarly journals Low background noise increases cognitive load in older adults listening to competing speech

2018 ◽  
Vol 144 (5) ◽  
pp. EL417-EL422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hartmut Meister ◽  
Sebastian Rählmann ◽  
Martin Walger
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Background Noise ◽  
Low Background ◽  
Competing Speech

Cognitive Load Affects Speech Motor Performance Differently in Older and Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. MacPherson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Speech Motor

PurposeThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest.MethodTwelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger adults produced multiple repetitions of 4 sentences containing an embedded Stroop task in 2 cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. The incongruent condition, which required participants to suppress orthographic information to say the font colors in which color words were written, represented an increase in cognitive load relative to the congruent condition in which word text and font color matched. Kinematic measures of articulatory coordination variability and movement duration as well as a behavioral measure of sentence production accuracy were compared between groups and conditions and across 3 sentence segments (pre-, during-, and post-Stroop).ResultsIncreased cognitive load in the incongruent condition was associated with increased articulatory coordination variability and movement duration, compared to the congruent Stroop condition, for both age groups. Overall, the effect of increased cognitive load was greater for older adults than younger adults and was greatest in the portion of the sentence in which cognitive load was manipulated (during-Stroop), followed by the pre-Stroop segment. Sentence production accuracy was reduced for older adults in the incongruent condition.ConclusionsIncreased cognitive load involving response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory processes within a speech production task disrupted both the stability and timing with which speech was produced by both age groups. Older adults' speech motor performance may have been more affected due to age-related changes in cognitive and motoric functions that result in altered motor cognition.

scholarly journals Evidence of degraded representation of speech in noise, in the aging midbrain and cortex

2016 ◽  
Vol 116 (5) ◽  
pp. 2346-2355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Presacco ◽  
Jonathan Z. Simon ◽  
Samira Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Speech Processing ◽  
Background Noise ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Network Connectivity ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Auditory Temporal Processing ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Speech Envelope ◽  
Impaired Speech

Humans have a remarkable ability to track and understand speech in unfavorable conditions, such as in background noise, but speech understanding in noise does deteriorate with age. Results from several studies have shown that in younger adults, low-frequency auditory cortical activity reliably synchronizes to the speech envelope, even when the background noise is considerably louder than the speech signal. However, cortical speech processing may be limited by age-related decreases in the precision of neural synchronization in the midbrain. To understand better the neural mechanisms contributing to impaired speech perception in older adults, we investigated how aging affects midbrain and cortical encoding of speech when presented in quiet and in the presence of a single-competing talker. Our results suggest that central auditory temporal processing deficits in older adults manifest in both the midbrain and in the cortex. Specifically, midbrain frequency following responses to a speech syllable are more degraded in noise in older adults than in younger adults. This suggests a failure of the midbrain auditory mechanisms needed to compensate for the presence of a competing talker. Similarly, in cortical responses, older adults show larger reductions than younger adults in their ability to encode the speech envelope when a competing talker is added. Interestingly, older adults showed an exaggerated cortical representation of speech in both quiet and noise conditions, suggesting a possible imbalance between inhibitory and excitatory processes, or diminished network connectivity that may impair their ability to encode speech efficiently.

scholarly journals Text captioning buffers against the effects of background noise and hearing loss on memory for speech

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennan Payne ◽  
Jack Silcox ◽  
Hannah Crandell ◽  
Amanda Lash ◽  
Sarah Hargus Ferguson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Recognition Memory ◽  
Background Noise ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Memory Accuracy ◽  
Immediate Recall ◽  
Hearing Acuity ◽  
Delayed Recognition ◽  
Memory Confidence

AbstractObjectives. Everyday speech understanding frequently occurs in perceptually demanding environments, for example due to background noise and normal age-related hearing loss. The resulting degraded speech signals increase listening effort, which gives rise to negative downstream effects on subsequent memory and comprehension, even when speech is intelligible. In two experiments, we explored whether the presentation of realistic assistive text captioned speech offsets the negative effects of background noise and hearing impairment on multiple measures of speech memory.Design. In Experiment 1, young normal hearing adults (N = 48) listened to sentences for immediate recall and delayed recognition memory. Speech was presented in quiet or in two levels of background noise. Sentences were either presented as speech only or as text captioned speech. Thus, the experiment followed a 2 (caption vs no caption) x 3 (no noise, +7 dB SNR, +3 dB SNR) within-subjects design. In Experiment 2, a group of older adults (age range : 61 – 80, N = 31), with varying levels of hearing acuity completed the same experimental task as in Experiment 1. For both experiments, immediate recall, recognition memory accuracy, and recognition memory confidence were analyzed via general(ized) linear mixed effects models. In addition, we examined individual differences as a function of hearing acuity in Experiment 2.Results. In Experiment 1, we found that the presentation of realistic text-captioned speech in young normal-hearing listeners improved immediate recall, delayed recognition memory accuracy, and memory confidence compared to speech alone. Moreover, text captions attenuated the negative effects of background noise on all speech memory outcomes. In Experiment 2, we replicated the same pattern of results in a sample of older adults with varying levels of hearing acuity. Moreover, we showed that the negative effects of hearing loss on speech memory in older adulthood were attenuated by the presentation of text captions.Conclusion. Collectively, these findings suggest that listeners can rapidly integrate text and speech, and that the simultaneous presentation of text can offset the negative effects of effortful listening on speech memory.

How task demands influence time-based prospective memory performance in young and older adults

2001 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 386-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Martin ◽  
Ruth Schumann-Hengsteler
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Prospective Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Processing Demands ◽  
Prospective Memory Performance

Prospective memory performance as a measure of everyday cognitive functioning is of increasing importance for developmental research. However, comparisons of studies on prospective memory development in adults reveal essential differences. Although some studies report no age effects, others find age effects of widely varying magnitudes. We suggest that differences in these findings on prospective memory performance can be explained by an age by task interaction (i.e., large amounts of cognitive load imposed by time-based prospective memory tasks disproportionally penalise older adults who possess fewer cognitive resources). We explored our hypothesis in a study with 90 young adults (M = 24.0 years) and 75 older adults (M = 69.0 years) by manipulating the overall cognitive processing demands of the prospective task situation. We varied the cognitive load of the background task while holding constant the time-based prospective memory task. Results indicate that the effects of increased overall processing demands strongly influence older adults’ performance. Results are discussed within the framework of capacity explanations of cognitive ageing that focus on the role of working memory resources in monitoring processes.

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