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  • Title: What does successful speech-in-noise perception in aging depend on? Electrophysiological correlates of high and low performance in older adults.
    Author: Getzmann S, Wascher E, Falkenstein M.
    Journal: Neuropsychologia; 2015 Apr; 70():43-57. PubMed ID: 25681737.
    Abstract:
    Aging usually decreases the ability to understand language under difficult listening conditions. However, aging is also associated with increased between-subject variability. Here, we studied potential sources of inter-individual differences and investigated spoken language understanding of younger and older adults (age ranges 21-35 and 57-74 years, respectively) in a simulated "cocktail-party" scenario. A naturalistic "stock-price monitoring" task was employed in which prices of listed companies were simultaneously recited by four speakers at different locations in space. The participants responded when prices of a target company exceeded specific values, while ignoring all other companies. According to their individual performance levels three subgroups of participants were composed, consisting of 12 high-performing and 12 low-performing older adults, and 12 young adults matching the high-performing older group. The analysis of the event-related brain potentials indicated that all older adults showed delayed attentional control (indicated by a later P2) and reduced speech processing (indicated by a reduced N400), relative to the younger adults. High-performing older adults differed in increased allocation of attention and inhibitory control (indicated by a stronger P2-N2 complex) from their low-performing counterparts. The results are consistent with the idea of an adjustment of mental resources that could help compensating potential deficiencies in peripheral and central auditory processing.
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