Ear Institute, University College London, London, UK.
Neuroscience of Perception and Action Lab, Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Rome, Italy.
Trends Hear. 2023 Jan-Dec;27:23312165231190688. doi: 10.1177/23312165231190688.
A growing literature is demonstrating a link between working memory (WM) and speech-in-noise (SiN) perception. However, the nature of this correlation and which components of WM might underlie it, are being debated. We investigated how SiN reception links with auditory sensory memory (aSM) - the low-level processes that support the short-term maintenance of temporally unfolding sounds. A large sample of old ( = 199, 60-79 yo) and young ( = 149, 20-35 yo) participants was recruited online and performed a coordinate response measure-based speech-in-babble task that taps listeners' ability to track a speech target in background noise. We used two tasks to investigate implicit and explicit aSM. Both were based on tone patterns overlapping in processing time scales with speech (presentation rate of tones 20 Hz; of patterns 2 Hz). We hypothesised that a link between SiN and aSM may be particularly apparent in older listeners due to age-related reduction in both SiN reception and aSM. We confirmed impaired SiN reception in the older cohort and demonstrated reduced aSM performance in those listeners. However, SiN and aSM did not share variability. Across the two age groups, SiN performance was predicted by a binaural processing test and age. The results suggest that previously observed links between WM and SiN may relate to the executive components and other cognitive demands of the used tasks. This finding helps to constrain the search for the perceptual and cognitive factors that explain individual variability in SiN performance.
越来越多的文献表明工作记忆（WM）和语音噪声（SiN）感知之间存在联系。然而，这种相关性的性质以及哪些 WM 成分可能是其基础，仍存在争议。我们研究了语音噪声接收与听觉感觉记忆（aSM）之间的联系——aSM 是支持时间展开声音短期维持的低级过程。我们在线招募了大量老年人（n=199，60-79 岁）和年轻人（n=149，20-35 岁）参与者，并进行了基于坐标反应的语音噪声任务，该任务可以测试参与者在背景噪声中跟踪语音目标的能力。我们使用两个任务来研究内隐和外显的 aSM。这两个任务都基于与语音在处理时间尺度上重叠的音调模式（音调呈现率为 20 Hz；模式为 2 Hz）。我们假设，由于 SiN 接收和 aSM 随着年龄的增长而降低，因此 SiN 和 aSM 之间的联系在老年参与者中可能更为明显。我们证实了老年组 SiN 接收受损，并证明了这些参与者的 aSM 表现下降。然而，SiN 和 aSM 没有共同的可变性。在两个年龄组中，SiN 表现由双耳处理测试和年龄预测。结果表明，之前观察到的 WM 和 SiN 之间的联系可能与所使用任务的执行成分和其他认知要求有关。这一发现有助于限制对解释 SiN 表现个体差异的感知和认知因素的搜索。
