Hwang Juen-Haur, Li Chia-Wei, Wu Chang-Wei, Chen Jyh-Horng, Liu Tien-Chen
Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Audiol Neurootol. 2007;12(5):285-94. doi: 10.1159/000103209. Epub 2007 May 23.
The functional significance of age-related pathology of the auditory cortex is not well established. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the activation pattern of the auditory cortex in aged subjects in response to speech signals. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed on 12 elderly subjects with normal hearing acuity during selective listening with both ears to speech sounds in quiet and in white noise. Twelve young, normal-hearing subjects served as controls. Our results showed that activation of the auditory cortex during selective listening to speech decreased in elderly subjects compared to young subjects, especially in noise. Reduced activation occurred in the anterior and posterior regions of the bilateral superior temporal gyrus (STG), but mainly in the posterior part of the left STG. In addition, background noise had a greater masking effect on speech perception in the elderly subjects than in the young ones. These findings suggest that early functional changes associated with central presbycusis occur mainly in the posterior part of the left STG.
听觉皮层与年龄相关的病理学的功能意义尚未完全明确。本研究的目的是阐明老年受试者在响应语音信号时听觉皮层的激活模式。对12名听力正常的老年受试者进行了功能磁共振成像，他们在安静环境和白噪声环境中双耳选择性聆听语音声音。12名听力正常的年轻受试者作为对照。我们的结果表明，与年轻受试者相比，老年受试者在选择性聆听语音时听觉皮层的激活减少，尤其是在噪声环境中。双侧颞上回（STG）的前部和后部激活减少，但主要发生在左侧STG的后部。此外，背景噪声对老年受试者语音感知的掩蔽效应比对年轻受试者更大。这些发现表明，与中枢性老年聋相关的早期功能变化主要发生在左侧STG的后部。
