Humes Larry E
Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, United States.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2021 Jul 5;13:702739. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2021.702739. eCollection 2021.
Many older adults have difficulty understanding speech in noisy backgrounds. In this study, we examined peripheral auditory, higher-level auditory, and cognitive factors that may contribute to such difficulties. A convenience sample of 137 volunteer older adults, 90 women, and 47 men, ranging in age from 47 to 94 years ( = 69.2 and SD = 10.1 years) completed a large battery of tests. Auditory tests included measures of pure-tone threshold, clinical and psychophysical, as well as two measures of gap-detection threshold and four measures of temporal-order identification. The latter included two monaural and two dichotic listening conditions. In addition, cognition was assessed using the complete Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-3rd Edition (WAIS-III). Two monaural measures of speech-recognition threshold (SRT) in noise, the QuickSIN, and the WIN, were obtained from each ear at relatively high presentation levels of 93 or 103 dB SPL to minimize audibility concerns. Group data, both aggregate and by age decade, were evaluated initially to allow comparison to data in the literature. Next, following the application of principal-components factor analysis for data reduction, individual differences in speech-recognition-in-noise performance were examined using multiple-linear-regression analyses. Excellent fits were obtained, accounting for 60-77% of the total variance, with most accounted for by the audibility of the speech and noise stimuli and the severity of hearing loss with the balance primarily associated with cognitive function.
许多老年人在嘈杂背景下理解言语存在困难。在本研究中，我们考察了可能导致此类困难的外周听觉、高级听觉和认知因素。选取了137名老年志愿者作为便利样本，其中90名女性，47名男性，年龄在47岁至94岁之间（平均年龄 = 69.2岁，标准差 = 10.1岁），他们完成了一系列大量测试。听觉测试包括纯音阈值测量、临床和心理物理学测量，以及两项间隙检测阈值测量和四项时间顺序识别测量。后者包括两种单耳和两种双耳聆听条件。此外，使用完整的韦氏成人智力量表第三版（WAIS - III）评估认知能力。在93或103 dB SPL的较高呈现水平下，从每只耳朵获取两项单耳言语识别阈值（SRT）测量值，即QuickSIN和WIN，以尽量减少可听度问题。最初对总体数据以及按年龄十年分组的数据进行评估，以便与文献中的数据进行比较。接下来，在应用主成分因子分析进行数据简化之后，使用多元线性回归分析检查噪声中言语识别表现的个体差异。获得了极佳的拟合效果，解释了总方差的60 - 77%，其中大部分由言语和噪声刺激的可听度以及听力损失的严重程度解释，其余部分主要与认知功能相关。
