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Relationship between Memory Load and Listening Demands in Age-Related Hearing Impairment.

ABSTRACT: Age-related hearing loss has been associated with increased recruitment of frontal brain areas during speech perception to compensate for the decline in auditory input. This additional recruitment may bind resources otherwise needed for understanding speech. However, it is unknown how increased demands on listening interact with increasing cognitive demands when processing speech in age-related hearing loss. The current study used a full-sentence working memory task manipulating demands on working memory and listening and studied untreated mild to moderate hard of hearing (n = 20) and normal-hearing age-matched participants (n = 19) with functional MRI. On the behavioral level, we found a significant interaction of memory load and listening condition; this was, however, similar for both groups. Under low, but not high memory load, listening condition significantly influenced task performance. Similarly, under easy but not difficult listening conditions, memory load had a significant effect on task performance. On the neural level, as measured by the BOLD response, we found increased responses under high compared to low memory load conditions in the left supramarginal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, and left supplementary motor cortex regardless of hearing ability. Furthermore, we found increased responses in the bilateral superior temporal gyri under easy compared to difficult listening conditions. We found no group differences nor interactions of group with memory load or listening condition. This suggests that memory load and listening condition interacted on a behavioral level, however, only the increased memory load was reflected in increased BOLD responses in frontal and parietal brain regions. Hence, when evaluating listening abilities in elderly participants, memory load should be considered as it might interfere with the assessed performance. We could not find any further evidence that BOLD responses for the different memory and listening conditions are affected by mild to moderate age-related hearing loss.

SUBMITTER: Pauquet J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8195652 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Background Prevention of hearing loss via addressing potentially modifiable risk factors may offer means of reducing the global burden of hearing loss. Prior studies reported associations between individual markers of inflammation and risk of hearing impairment. Allostatic load is an index of cumulative physiological stressors, including inflammation, to multiple biological systems. Our aims were to investigate associations between allostatic load and both audiometric and self-reported hearing impairment and examine whether associations are stronger over time due to prolonged high allostatic load. Methods Data were taken from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative study of people aged 50+ living in England over 3 time points between 2008 and 2014. Allostatic load score was comprised of thirteen different measures available at baseline and 4 years post-baseline (high-density lipoprotein/total cholesterol, triglyceride, fibrinogen, haemoglobin A1c, C-reactive protein, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), systolic and diastolic blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, resting pulse rate, peak expiratory flow, BMI and waist circumference), measured using clinical cut-off points for normal biomarker parameters. Hearing acuity was measured with a simple handheld tone-producing device at follow-up 7 years post-baseline, while self-reported hearing impairment was measured at time point. Results We included samples of 4373 and 4430 for the cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis, respectively. In the cross-sectional model high allostatic load was associated both self-reported (OR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.0,1.1; p < 0.01) and objective hearing loss (OR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.1,1.2; p < 0.001) adjusting for age and sex. Cross-sectional associations between allostatic load and hearing were not significant after further adjustment for covariates (qualification, physical activity and smoking). In longitudinal modelling, high allostatic load was associated with both audiometric (Z score OR = 1.11, 95% CI 1.1,1.2; p < 0.001) and self-reported hearing impairment (OR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.0,1.1; p < 0.001) adjusting for age and sex. Allostatic load was no longer associated with self-reported hearing loss but the association with audiometric hearing impairment (OR = 1.08, 95% CI 1.03,1.13; p < 0.001) remained following additional adjustment for baseline self-reported hearing, education, physical activity, and smoking. Conclusions Prolonged high allostatic load was associated with risk of hearing impairment. Reducing allostatic load via healthy lifestyle changes including non-smoking, healthy diet and exercise may offer an opportunity to reduce the risk of hearing impairment in later life. Highlights • Allostatic load captures cumulative physiological stress which has consequence for subsequent hearing function.• Prolonged high allostatic load was associated with risk of objectively measured hearing impairment.• This association is shown in nationally representative longitudinal ageing study.

Project description:Recent research has demonstrated that pupillometry is a robust measure for quantifying listening effort. However, pupillary responses in listening situations where multiple cognitive functions are engaged and sustained over a period of time remain hard to interpret. This limits our conceptualisation and understanding of listening effort in realistic situations, because rarely in everyday life are people challenged by one task at a time. Therefore, the purpose of this experiment was to reveal the dynamics of listening effort in a sustained listening condition using a word repeat and recall task. Words were presented in quiet and speech-shaped noise at different signal-to-noise ratios (SNR): 0dB, 7dB, 14dB and quiet. Participants were presented with lists of 10 words, and required to repeat each word after its presentation. At the end of the list, participants either recalled as many words as possible or moved on to the next list. Simultaneously, their pupil dilation was recorded throughout the whole experiment. When only word repeating was required, peak pupil dilation (PPD) was bigger in 0dB versus other conditions; whereas when recall was required, PPD showed no difference among SNR levels and PPD in 0dB was smaller than repeat-only condition. Baseline pupil diameter and PPD followed different variation patterns across the 10 serial positions within a block for conditions requiring recall: baseline pupil diameter built up progressively and plateaued in the later positions (but shot up when listeners were recalling the previously heard words from memory); PPD decreased at a pace quicker than in repeat-only condition. The current findings demonstrate that additional cognitive load during a speech intelligibility task could disturb the well-established relation between pupillary response and listening effort. Both the magnitude and temporal pattern of task-evoked pupillary response differ greatly in complex listening conditions, urging for more listening effort studies in complex and realistic listening situations.

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Relationship between Memory Load and Listening Demands in Age-Related Hearing Impairment.

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