Speech Perception and High Cognitive Demand
Auditory-cognitive Training Paradigm (NIH P01 Project - Speech Perception With High Cognitive Demand)
University of Maryland, College Park
100 participants
Sep 27, 2021
INTERVENTIONAL
Conditions
Summary
With advancing age, adults experience increasing speech understanding difficulties in challenging situations. Currently, speech-in-noise difficulties are rehabilitated by providing hearing aids. For older normal-hearing adults, however, hearing devices do not provide much benefit since these adults do not have decreased hearing sensitivity. The goal of the "Speech Perception and High Cognitive Demand" project is to evaluate the benefit of a new auditory-cognitive training paradigm. In the present study neural (as measured by pupillometry and magnetoencephalography) and behavioral changes of speech-in-noise perception from pretest to posttest will be examined in older adults (age 65 - 85 years) assigned to one of three training groups: 1) Active Control Group: sessions of watching informational videos, 2) Auditory Training Group: sessions of auditory training listening to one of two speakers in everyday scenarios (e.g., driving directions) and needing to recall what one speaker said in the previous sentence, and 3) Auditory-cognitive training group: identical to the auditory training group, except participants will be asked to remember information from two previous sentences. Changes in speech-in-noise perception will be examined for the three groups of older adults and gains will be compared to a control group of young, normal hearing adults (18-30 years) that is not part of the clinical trial and will not undergo any training.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria5
- Aged between 65 - 85 years
- Normal hearing (pure tone thresholds ≤ 25 dB HL from 250 - 8000 Hz)
- Self-reported normal or corrected-to-normal vision
- Dominant language: American English
- Education: a high school diploma or higher education level
Exclusion Criteria10
- Middle-ear or inner-ear pathology
- Non-native speaker of English
- Inability to complete all training sessions within a pre-specified time window (e.g., due to unexpected schedule restrictions)
- Learning disorders
- Metal in body that induces a data artifact for MEG recording (e.g., excessive metal dental work) or that poses a safety issue in the MRI portion (e.g., pacemakers, neural implants, metal plates or joints, shrapnel, and surgical staples)
- Claustrophobia or any condition that would be exacerbated by the scanning environment's lighting, sounds, etc. (e.g., migraines)
- A non-removable hairstyle or hair accessory that would prevent the participant from fitting comfortably in the MEG or MRI head coil
- Currently under a medical provider's care for a closed head injury
- Currently taking psychoactive stimulant (e.g., amphetamines), depressant (e.g., benzodiazepines), mood stabilizing (e.g., lithium), anti-psychotic, or anti-seizure medications or drugs of abuse
- Currently pregnant (only for MRI)
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Interventions
The investigators developed an American English version of the Nottingham (UK) PLUS training paradigm in which listeners are asked to focus and listen to one speaker while ignoring another speaker. The paradigm is designed to optimally enhance the possibility of benefit: an adaptive procedure is employed to train each individual at their own level to make the task challenging. A short-term memory component, in which listeners are asked to remember what a designated speaker said two sentences prior, was added to the auditory training paradigm to make the task more challenging. Participants will be asked to recall the keywords of the to-be-attended speaker. The sentences will be presented in a two-down one-up adaptive procedure in which the ratio of the levels of the to-be-attended and to-be-ignored speaker will be adjusted based on the correctly recalled key words.
The investigators developed an American English version of the Nottingham (UK) PLUS training paradigm in which listeners are asked to focus and listen to one speaker while ignoring another speaker. The paradigm is designed to optimally enhance the possibility of benefit: an adaptive procedure is employed to train each individual at their own level to make the task challenging. Participants will be asked to recall the keywords of the to-be-attended speaker. The sentences will be presented in a two-down one-up adaptive procedure in which the ratio of the levels of the to-be-attended and to-be-ignored speaker will be adjusted based on the correctly recalled key words.
Locations(2)
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NCT04997577