Dinces Elizabeth, Sussman Elyse S
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, United States.
Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, United States.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2017 Dec 22;9:414. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2017.00414. eCollection 2017.
The ability to select sound streams from background noise becomes challenging with age, even with normal peripheral auditory functioning. Reduced stream segregation ability has been reported in older compared to younger adults. However, the reason why there is a difference is still unknown. The current study investigated the hypothesis that automatic sound processing is impaired with aging, which then contributes to difficulty actively selecting subsets of sounds in noisy environments. We presented a simple intensity oddball sequence in various conditions with irrelevant background sounds while recording EEG. The ability to detect the oddball tones was dependent on the ability to automatically or actively segregate the sounds to frequency streams. Listeners were able to actively segregate sounds to perform the loudness detection task, but there was no indication of automatic segregation of background sounds while watching a movie. Thus, our results indicate impaired automatic processes in aging that may explain more effortful listening, and that tax attentional systems when selecting sound streams in noisy environments.
随着年龄增长，即使外周听觉功能正常，从背景噪声中选择声音流的能力也会变得具有挑战性。与年轻人相比，老年人的声音流分离能力有所下降。然而，造成这种差异的原因仍然未知。当前的研究调查了这样一种假设，即自动声音处理能力会随着年龄增长而受损，这进而导致在嘈杂环境中主动选择声音子集变得困难。我们在记录脑电图（EEG）的同时，在各种存在无关背景声音的条件下呈现了一个简单的强度偏差序列。检测偏差音调的能力取决于自动或主动将声音分离到频率流中的能力。听众能够主动分离声音以执行响度检测任务，但在观看电影时没有迹象表明背景声音能自动分离。因此，我们的结果表明，衰老过程中自动处理能力受损，这可能解释了更费力的听力状况，以及在嘈杂环境中选择声音流时对注意力系统造成的负担。
