Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Communication Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Mar 12;110(11):4357-62. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1213555110. Epub 2013 Feb 11.
Neural slowing is commonly noted in older adults, with consequences for sensory, motor, and cognitive domains. One of the deleterious effects of neural slowing is impairment of temporal resolution; older adults, therefore, have reduced ability to process the rapid events that characterize speech, especially in noisy environments. Although hearing aids provide increased audibility, they cannot compensate for deficits in auditory temporal processing. Auditory training may provide a strategy to address these deficits. To that end, we evaluated the effects of auditory-based cognitive training on the temporal precision of subcortical processing of speech in noise. After training, older adults exhibited faster neural timing and experienced gains in memory, speed of processing, and speech-in-noise perception, whereas a matched control group showed no changes. Training was also associated with decreased variability of brainstem response peaks, suggesting a decrease in temporal jitter in response to a speech signal. These results demonstrate that auditory-based cognitive training can partially restore age-related deficits in temporal processing in the brain; this plasticity in turn promotes better cognitive and perceptual skills.
神经减缓在老年人中很常见，对感觉、运动和认知领域都有影响。神经减缓的一个有害影响是对时间分辨率的损害；因此，老年人处理以言语为特征的快速事件的能力下降，尤其是在嘈杂的环境中。尽管助听器提供了更高的可听度，但它们不能弥补听觉时间处理的缺陷。听觉训练可能是解决这些缺陷的一种策略。为此，我们评估了基于听觉的认知训练对噪声中言语下皮质处理的时间精度的影响。训练后，老年人的神经计时更快，记忆、处理速度和言语感知方面的收益增加，而匹配的对照组没有变化。训练还与脑干反应峰的可变性降低有关，这表明对言语信号的时间抖动减少。这些结果表明，基于听觉的认知训练可以部分恢复大脑中与年龄相关的时间处理缺陷；这种可塑性反过来又促进了更好的认知和感知技能。
