Age-related changes in acoustic cue use for speech-in-speech perception

Acoustic cues such as pitch and spatial location allow listeners to attend to a target speaker and ignore competing talkers, aiding speech recognition in background noise. Diminished ability to utilize acoustic cues for speech stream segregation may thus contribute to older adults' challenges hearing in noise....

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Age-related decline in the use of pitch and spatial cues for speech-in-noise perception may explain some of the listening difficulty seen in older adults beyond what pure-tone audiometry captures; no immediate protocol change is indicated, but findings support comprehensive speech-in-noise evaluation in aging patients.

Understanding which specific acoustic cues older adults struggle to use helps explain why many aging patients report difficulty understanding speech in noise despite near-normal audiograms, and could guide more targeted rehabilitation strategies.

1. 01Older adults show age-related changes in using pitch and spatial location cues to separate target speech from background talkers.
2. 02Declining use of these cues may contribute to real-world listening difficulties in aging.
3. 03Study examined both pitch (fundamental frequency) and spatial (location-based) cue processing.
4. 04Findings extend beyond standard audiometric thresholds to explain age-related speech-in-noise difficulties.
5. 05Results could inform rehabilitation approaches targeting specific auditory processing deficits in older adults.

PMID

42648144

DOI

10.1016/j.heares.2026.109780.

Journal

Hearing Research

Publication type

research_article

Evidence level

2b

Population

Adults across age groups assessed for speech-in-speech perception abilities

Intervention

Assessment of acoustic cue use (pitch and spatial location) for speech-in-speech perception

Comparator

Younger adults vs. older adults