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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Meher Lad, Professor John-Paul TaylorORCiD, Professor Tim GriffithsORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2024 The Author(s)Speech-in-noise (SIN) perception is a fundamental ability that declines with aging, as does general cognition. We assess whether auditory cognitive ability, in particular short-term memory for sound features, contributes to both. We examined how auditory memory for fundamental sound features, the carrier frequency and amplitude modulation rate of modulated white noise, contributes to SIN perception. We assessed SIN in 153 healthy participants with varying degrees of hearing loss using measures that require single-digit perception (the Digits-in-Noise, DIN) and sentence perception (Speech-in-Babble, SIB). Independent variables were auditory memory and a range of other factors including the Pure Tone Audiogram (PTA), a measure of dichotic pitch-in-noise perception (Huggins pitch), and demographic variables including age and sex. Multiple linear regression models were compared using Bayesian Model Comparison. The best predictor model for DIN included PTA and Huggins pitch (r2 = 0.32, p < 0.001), whereas the model for SIB included the addition of auditory memory for sound features (r2 = 0.24, p < 0.001). Further analysis demonstrated that auditory memory also explained a significant portion of the variance (28 %) in scores for a screening cognitive test for dementia. Auditory memory for non-speech sounds may therefore provide an important predictor of both SIN and cognitive ability.
Author(s): Lad M, Taylor J-P, Griffiths TD
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Hearing Research
Year: 2024
Volume: 451
Print publication date: 15/09/2024
Online publication date: 11/07/2024
Acceptance date: 10/07/2024
Date deposited: 23/07/2024
ISSN (print): 0378-5955
ISSN (electronic): 1878-5891
Publisher: Elsevier B.V.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2024.109081
DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2024.109081
Data Access Statement: Data will be made available on request.
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