Associations Between Auditory Working Memory, Self-Perceived Listening Effort, and Hearing Difficulty in Adults With...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Audiology
• Rehabilitation Medicine

Background:

• Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) can cause persistent auditory issues like difficulty listening in noise, even with normal pure-tone hearing.
• Individuals with a history of mild TBI often report subjective hearing difficulties and increased listening effort in complex auditory environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate self-perceived hearing difficulty, listening effort, and auditory processing performance in adults with a history of mild TBI compared to a control group.

Main Methods:

• Twenty adults (10 mild TBI, 10 controls) completed auditory questionnaires (Adult Auditory Processing Scale, Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults) and the NASA-Task Load Index for listening effort.
• Auditory processing was assessed using dichotic word recognition, 500-Hz masking level difference (MLD), Listening in Spatialized Noise-Sentences test, and the Word Auditory Recognition and Recall Measure (WARRM).

Main Results:

• The mild TBI group reported significantly higher hearing difficulty and listening effort than controls.
• No significant differences were found in dichotic word recognition or the Listening in Spatialized Noise-Sentences test between groups.
• The mild TBI group performed significantly worse on the 500-Hz MLD and WARRM (auditory working memory).

Conclusions:

• Adults with mild TBI experience subjective hearing difficulties and increased listening effort in challenging acoustic settings.
• Poorer auditory working memory, as measured by WARRM, was linked to increased hearing difficulty and listening effort in the mild TBI group.
• A comprehensive auditory assessment including subjective measures and diverse processing tasks is recommended for individuals with a history of mild TBI.