Processing of Visual Speech Cues in Speech-in-Noise Comprehension Depends on Working Memory Capacity and Enhances Neural Speech Tracking in Older Adults With Hearing Impairment.
Vanessa Frei, Raffael Schmitt, Martin Meyer and 1 others
PMID 39444375WHAT IT FOUND
Seeing the speaker's mouth did not improve comprehension of sentences in noise for older adults with hearing loss.
Comprehension was linked to working memory, and visual cues increased the brain's tracking of speech, but that tracking did not predict better understanding.
Key findings
01Adding congruent visual speech cues did not significantly improve pattern matching or comprehension in babble noise.
02Working memory was associated with speech-in-noise performance: a one standard deviation increase in working memory was linked to a 16% increase in the odds of correct pattern matching and a 53% increase in the odds of correct comprehension.
03Audio-visual presentation increased neural speech tracking, especially in a right temporo-parieto-occipital cluster.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The pattern-matching and comprehension tasks also placed demands on working memory, so the strong working memory link may partly reflect the task rather than everyday listening. The study did not find a significant audio-visual benefit for behavior, even though some participants improved and others worsened. Participants were healthy older adults with mild to moderate hearing loss and no cognitive impairment, so it is unclear whether the same patterns hold in people with more severe hearing loss or cognitive impairment. Neural tracking increased with visual cues, but it was not linked to better comprehension, so the neural effect should not be read as proof of improved understanding. The visual stimulus was a single speaker's lip movements in standard German, which may not match everyday conversations.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. Funding came from Swiss National Science Foundation grants 105319_169964 and PR00P1_185715.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that seeing the speaker's mouth improves comprehension in noise. The audio-visual presentation did not significantly improve pattern matching or comprehension, and the increase in neural tracking did not predict better understanding.