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Active Research
Temporal Resolution Of Cochlear And Auditory Nerve Responses In Older Adults
Principal Investigator: Dawn Konrad-Martin, Ph.D.
Objective: To determine: 1) whether auditory nerve synchrony is reduced and recovery from prior stimulation is prolonged in older ears; 2) the extent that age-related changes in cochlear function can account for changes in the amplitude and timing of auditory nerve responses; and 3) whether age-related changes in cochlear mechanical and auditory nerve responses alter the perception of temporal speech cues by older listeners.
Background: Older adults have significantly greater difficulty understanding speech compared with younger adults, even when hearing sensitivity is similar between the two groups, possibly due to impaired perception of time-varying speech cues. The decline in temporal resolution that accompanies aging is due to an unknown mixture of peripheral (cochlear and auditory nerve), central auditory, and cognitive processing deficits.
Findings: Proposed physiological measures are quick and unaffected by age-related changes in cognition or memory and might, therefore, lead to development of clinical tools that target sources of reduced temporal processing within peripheral auditory processing stages. Once these sources are known, hearing aid fitting and rehabilitative training strategies can be devised that remediate temporal processing problems of individual patients.
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