Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 20, 2025

Assessment of Audio-Tactile Sensory Substitution Training in Participants with Profound Deafness Using the Event-Related Potential Technique
Published on: September 7, 2022
Extended High-Frequency Hearing Loss and Suprathreshold Auditory Processing: The Moderating Role of Auditory Working
Srikanta K Mishra1, Sajana Aryal1, Chhayakanta Patro2
1Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.
Subclinical hearing loss, especially in high frequencies, impacts auditory processing, but working memory capacity can compensate. Lower working memory makes individuals more vulnerable to these auditory deficits, particularly with fast temporal changes.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
- Audiology
Background:
- Natural sounds possess temporal fluctuations crucial for auditory perception.
- Hearing loss, even subclinical, can impair the coding of these temporal features.
- Elevated extended high-frequency hearing thresholds (above 8 kHz) in normal audiogram listeners indicate basal cochlear damage and potential dysfunction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between extended high-frequency hearing and suprathreshold auditory processing.
- To examine how cognitive factors, specifically working memory, moderate this relationship.
- To understand the impact of subclinical cochlear dysfunction on temporal processing.
Main Methods:
- Assessed frequency modulation difference limens (slow and fast rates) and backward masking thresholds.
- Measured digit span (working memory capacity) in 44 normal-hearing listeners.
- Correlated extended high-frequency hearing thresholds with auditory performance measures, considering working memory as a moderator.
Main Results:
- Extended high-frequency thresholds alone did not directly predict auditory performance.
- Working memory capacity, particularly backward digit span, moderated the association between high-frequency hearing and auditory processing.
- Lower working memory was linked to poorer performance on fast-rate frequency modulation and higher backward masking thresholds, but not slow-rate modulations.
Conclusions:
- Working memory capacity influences the perceptual impact of elevated extended high-frequency thresholds.
- Individuals with lower working memory are more susceptible to auditory deficits from subclinical cochlear damage.
- Cognitive resources may act as a compensatory mechanism against subclinical auditory impairments, especially in temporally demanding tasks.
More Related Videos
06:04Systematic Hearing Performance Evaluation Process for Adolescents with Cochlear Implantation at Early Ages
Published on: March 24, 2023
14:05Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses
Published on: January 23, 2017
Related Concept Videos
Working Memory
Hearing
Auditory Perception
Perception of Sound Waves
The pitch of a sound depends on the frequency and the pressure amplitude of the source. Two sounds of the same...
Perceiving Loudness, Pitch, and Location
Place theory, or place coding, suggests that different pitches are heard because various sound waves activate specific locations along the cochlea's basilar membrane. The brain determines the pitch of a sound by...
Auditory Pathway
When viewed cross-sectionally, the cochlea reveals the scala vestibuli and scala tympani flanking...