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Decoding Hearing-Related Changes in Older Adults' Spatiotemporal Neural Processing of Speech Using Machine Learning.
Md Sultan Mahmud1, Faruk Ahmed1, Rakib Al-Fahad1
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States.
Frontiers in Neuroscience
|August 9, 2020
Summary
This study reveals distinct brain activity patterns in older adults with mild hearing loss, identifying specific brain regions and time courses crucial for speech perception, especially in noisy conditions. These findings highlight the neural differences impacting auditory processing in aging hearing loss.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Auditory Perception
- Gerontology
Background:
- Speech perception in noise relies on sensory-cognitive interactions, which can be impaired in older adults, particularly with hearing loss.
- Understanding the neural underpinnings of these impairments is crucial for developing targeted interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the temporal and spatial characteristics of cortical speech-evoked responses that differentiate older adults with and without mild hearing loss.
- To identify specific brain regions and time courses critical for distinguishing between normal hearing and mild hearing loss in older adults during speech perception tasks.
Main Methods:
- Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings were analyzed using source analysis to estimate cortical surface signals.
- A phoneme discrimination task was conducted under clear and noise-degraded speech conditions.
- Multivariate feature selection (stability selection) and support vector machine (SVM) classification were employed to identify distinguishing neural features.
Main Results:
- Classification accuracy distinguishing hearing groups was 81.50% for clear speech (within ~60 ms) and 78.12% for noise-degraded speech (at 80 ms).
- The left hemisphere showed greater sensitivity in distinguishing hearing groups compared to the right hemisphere.
- Specific brain regions were identified as critical for group segregation, with more regions involved in processing noise-degraded speech.
Conclusions:
- The study successfully identified critical time courses and brain regions that differentiate older adults with mild hearing loss from those with normal hearing.
- Mild hearing loss impacts early cortical speech processing, with distinct neural signatures observable even in quiet conditions.
- Processing degraded speech engages a broader network of brain regions, particularly in the right hemisphere, highlighting the cognitive load associated with auditory challenges in older adults.
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