Difficulties understanding speech in noise are common in healthy aging, even among older adults with audiometrically normal hearing, suggesting a contribution from higher-order control processes, including auditory working memory (WM)....
No actionable change — this mechanistic EEG study deepens understanding of age-related auditory working-memory changes in normal-audiogram older adults, but does not yet yield clinical intervention guidance.
Identifying the neural signatures of age-related auditory working-memory decline in normal-audiogram older adults may explain why some patients struggle with speech-in-noise despite passing standard audiograms.
- 01EEG used to map age-related changes in auditory working-memory control in older adults.
- 02Participants had normal audiograms, isolating cognitive rather than peripheral hearing loss effects.
- 03Phonological and executive task demands both modulated brainwave signatures.
- 04Brain reconfiguration patterns correlated with speech-in-noise performance.
- 05Findings support the need for cognitive assessment alongside standard audiometry.
Older adults with normal audiograms show age-related reconfiguration of auditory working-memory neural control that correlates with speech-in-noise performance.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42224926
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.heares.2026.109688.
- Journal
- Hearing Research
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 4
- Population
- Older adults with normal audiograms
- Intervention
- EEG measurement under converging phonological and executive auditory working-memory demands
- Comparator
- Younger adults (implied control group)
Primary outcomes
EEG signatures of auditory working-memory control; Speech-in-noise performance