Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Suprathreshold Processing and Cocktail Party Listening in Younger and Older Adults with Normal Hearing

  • Published:
Ageing International Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Present study aimed to investigate the effect of age and suprathreshold processing on cocktail party listening in individuals with normal hearing sensitivity. A total of 92 participants with normal hearing sensitivity were included in the study. They were divided into two groups based on their age. Fifty two young normal hearing adults in the age range of 20–40 years and 40 older normal hearing adults in the age range of 60-80 years. Tests administered included speech perception in noise test, spatial selective attention, gap detection thresholds, temporal modulation transfer function, inter-aural time difference, differential limen of frequency and ripple noise discrimination. Results showed that older adults performed poorer than younger adults in all the tests. Also, temporal cues showed a better relation with speech perception in noise compared to the spectral cues. This can be attributed to the disrupted neural synchrony which is due to poor frequency selectivity as observed through ripple noise discrimination. Individuals rely more on temporal cues due to poorer frequency resolution and phase locking mechanism and also on top down processes such as selective attention too. A degraded speech input would lead them to rely more on their higher cognition.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Babkoff, H., Muchnik, C., Ben-David, N., Furst, M., Even-Zohar, S., & Hildesheimer, M. (2002). Mapping lateralization of click trains in younger and older populations. Hearing Research, 165, 117–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craik, F. I. M., & Byrd, M. (1982). Aging and cognitive deficits: the role of attentional resources. In F. I. M. Craik & S. Trehub (Eds.), Aging and cognitive processes (pp. 191–211). New York: Plenum.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dempster, F. N. (1991). Inhibitory processes: a negleted dimension of intelligence. Intelligence, 15, 157–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dubno, J. R., Horwitz, A. R., & Ahlstrom, J. B. (2002). Benefit of modulated maskers for speech recognition by younger and older adults with normal hearing. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 111(6), 2897–2907.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finney, D. J. (1952). Statistical method in biological assay. London: C. Griffen.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon-Salant, S., & Fitzgibbons, P. J. (1993). Temporal factors and speech recognition performance in young and elderly listeners. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 36, 1276–1285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grassi, M., & Soranzo, A. (2009). MLP: a MATLAB toolbox for rapid and reliable auditory threshold estimations. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 20–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, D. M. (1990). Stimulus selection in adaptive psychophysical procedures. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 87, 2662–2674.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green, D. M. (1993). A maximum-likelihood method for estimating thresholds in a yes-no task. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 93, 2096–2105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grose, J. H., & Mamo, S. K. (2010). Processing of temporal fine structure as a function of age. Ear and Hearing, 31(6), 755–760.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grose, J. H., Mamu, S. K., & Hall, J. W., III. (2009). Age effects in temporal envelope processing: Speech unmasking and auditory steady state responses. Ear and Hearing, 30, 568–575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Helfer, K., & Freyman, R. (2008). Aging and speech-on-speech masking. Ear and Hearing, 29, 87–98.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helfer, K. S., & Vargo, M. (2009). Speech recognition and temporal processing in middle-aged women. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 20, 264–271.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hopkins, K., Moore, B. C. J., & Stone, M. A. (2008). Effects of moderate cochlear hearing loss on the ability to benefit from temporal fine structure information in speech. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 123, 1140–1153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huss, M., & Moore, B. C. J. (2005). Dead regions and pitch perception. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 117, 3841–3852.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kidd, G., Arbogast, T. L., Mason, C. R., & Gallun, F. J. (2005). The advantage of knowing where to listen. Journal of Acoustical Society of America, 118, 3804–3815.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Killion, M., & Niquette, P. (2000). What can the pure-tone audiogram tell us about a patient's SNR loss? The Hearing Journal, 53(3), 46–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MATLAB and Statistics Toolbox 7.10, The MathWorks, Inc., Natick, Massachusetts, United States.

  • Methi, R., Avinash, & Kumar, U. A. (2009). Development of sentence material for Quick Speech in Noise test (Quick SIN) in Kannada. Journal of Indian Speech Language and Hearing Association, 23(1), 59–65.

  • Moore, B. C. J. (2008). The role of temporal fine structure processing in pitch perception, masking, and speech perception for normal-hearing and hearing-impaired people. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 9(4), 399–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rönnberg, J., Rudner, M., Lunner, T., & Zekveld, A. A. (2010). When cognition kicks in: Working memory and speech understanding in noise. Noise & Health, 12, 26326–26329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruggles, D., & Shinn-Cunningham, B. (2011). Spatial selective auditory attention in the presence of reverberant energy: Individual differences in normal-hearing listeners. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, 12(3), 395–405.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salthouse, T. A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychological Review, 103, 403–428.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schoof, T., & Rosen, S. (2014). The role of auditory and cognitive factors in understanding speech in noise by normal-hearing older listeners. Frontiers of Aging Neuroscience, 6, 307.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, B. A., Li, L., & Daneman, M. (2007). How competing speech interferes with speech comprehension in everyday listening situations. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 18(7), 559-572.

  • Soranzo, A., & Grassi, M. (2014). PSYCHOACOUSTICS: A comprehensive MATLAB toolbox for auditory testing. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 712.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Souza, P., Arehart, K., Miller, C. W., & Muralimanohar, R. K. (2011). Effects of age on F0-discrimination and intonation perception in simulated electric and electro-acoustic hearing. Ear and Hearing, 32(1), 75–83. https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0b013e3181eccfe9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zeng, F. G., Nie, K., Stickney, G. S., Kong, Y. Y., Vongphoe, M., Bhargave, A., Wei, C., & Cao, K. (2005). Speech recognition with amplitude and frequency modulations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102, 2293–2298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zurek, P. M. (1993). Binaural advantages and directional effects in speech intelligibility. In G. A. Studebaker & I. Hockberg (Eds.), Acoustical factors affecting hearing aid performance (2nd ed., pp. 255–276). Needham Heights: Allyn and Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Audiology, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Manasagangothri, Mysore, India

    Chandni Jain, Vikas Mysore Dwarakanath & Amritha G

Authors
  1. Chandni Jain
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Vikas Mysore Dwarakanath
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Amritha G
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vikas Mysore Dwarakanath.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author expresses no conflict of interest.

Financial Disclosures

No financial support was received from the government or non-government organization.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all the participants of the study and the study protocol was approved by the institutional ethical committee.

Ethical Treatment of Experimental Subjects (Human)

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ‘Ethical guidelines for bio-behavioral research involving human subjects’, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysuru and with the1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jain, C., Dwarakanath, V.M. & G, A. Suprathreshold Processing and Cocktail Party Listening in Younger and Older Adults with Normal Hearing. Ageing Int 45, 1–17 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-019-09356-8

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-019-09356-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation