Perceptual sensitivity to, and electrophysiological encoding of, a complex periodic signal: effects of age.

This was a laboratory cross-sectional study of 20 younger and 20 older adults, not a treatment trial, so it cannot show that any intervention improves speech-in-noise performance. Not all participants completed every task: 16 younger and 19 older adults completed the speech-in-noise measure. Older adults reached the maximum measurable mistuning threshold in 11 of 240 individual analyses, compared with 1 for younger adults, so the mistuning task may have underestimated some older adults' true sensitivity. The associations across all participants were likely driven by the difference between age groups, because within the older adults alone the measures did not track together. All participants had normal or near-normal hearing, so the findings may not apply to patients with hearing loss. The study used controlled speech and tone tasks, not everyday listening situations, functional communication measures, or therapy-relevant outcomes.

The supplied text does not include a conflict-of-interest declaration. The article is listed as Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural. Participants were paid for their participation.

Do not conclude that one laboratory measure can predict an older patient’s speech-in-noise difficulty. The measures differed between age groups, but within the older adults alone they did not track together, and no treatment was tested.