Enhancing Speech Recognition in Adverse Listening Environments: The Impact of Brief Musical Training on Older Adults
Abstract
The present research investigated the effects of short-term musical training on speech recognition in adverse listening conditions in older adults. A total of 30 Kannada-speaking participants with no history of gross otologic, neurologic, or cognitive problems were divided equally into experimental (M = 63 years) and control groups (M = 65 years). Baseline and follow-up assessments for speech in noise (SNR50) and reverberation was carried out for both groups. The participants in the experimental group were subjected to Carnatic classical music training, which lasted for seven days. The Bayesian likelihood estimates revealed no difference in SNR50 and speech recognition scores in reverberation between baseline and followed-up assessment for the control group. Whereas, in the experimental group, the SNR50 reduced, and speech recognition scores improved following musical training, suggesting the positive impact of music training. The improved performance on speech recognition suggests that short-term musical training using Carnatic music can be used as a potential tool to improve speech recognition abilities in adverse listening conditions in older adults.Keywords:
musical training, carnatic music, speech recognition in noise, speech recognition in reverberationReferences
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37. Tun P.A., Williams V.A., Small B.J., Hafter E.R. (2012), The effects of aging on auditory processing and cognition, American Journal of Audiology, 21(2): 344–350, https://doi.org/10.1044/1059-0889%282012/12-0030%29
38. Verhaeghen P., Cerella J. (2002), Aging, executive control, and attention: a review of meta-analyses, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 26(7): 849–857, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-7634%2802%2900071-4
39. Wangemann P. (2002), K+ cycling and the endocochlear potential. Hearing Research, 165(1–2): 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-5955%2802%2900279-4
40. White-Schwoch T., Carr K.W., Anderson S., Strait D.L., Kraus N. (2013), Older adults benefit from music training early in life: Biological evidence for long-term training-driven plasticity, Journal of Neuroscience, 33(45): 17667–17674, https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2560-13.2013
41. Zendel B.R., Alain C. (2009), Concurrent sound segregation is enhanced in musicians, Cognitive Neuroscience, 21(8): 1488–1498, https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21140
42. Zhang Y., Suga N., Yan J. (1997), Corticofugal modulation of frequency processing in bat auditory system, Nature, 387(6636): 900–903, https://doi.org/10.1038/43180
2. Anderson S., Kraus N. (2010), Sensory-cognitive interaction in the neural encoding of speech in noise: A review, Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 21(9): 575–585, https://doi.org/10.3766/jaaa.21.9.3
3. Anderson S., White-Schwoch T., Parbery-Clark A., Kraus N. (2013), Reversal of age-related neural timing delays with training, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(11): 4357–4362, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1213555110
4. Best V., Ozmeral E.J., Kopco N., Shinn-Cunningham B.G. (2008), Object continuity enhances selective auditory attention, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(35): 13174–13178, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0803718105
5. Burk M.H., Humes L.E., Amos N.E., Strauser L.E. (2006), Effect of training on word-recognition performance in noise for young normal-hearing and older hearing-impaired listeners, Ear and Hearing, 27(3): 263–278, https://doi.org/10.1097/01.aud.0000215980.21158.a2
6. Chisolm T.H., Willott J.F., Lister J.J. (2003), The aging auditory system: Anatomic and physiologic changes and implications for rehabilitation, International Journal of Audiology, 42(Suppl 2): 3–10, https://doi.org/10.3109/14992020309074637
7. Curhan S.G., Eavey R., Wang M., Stampfer M.J., Curhan G.C. (2013), Body mass index, waist circumference, physical activity, and risk of hearing loss in women, The American Journal of Medicine, 126(12): 1142.e1–e8, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2013.04.026
8. Devi N., Uppunda A.K., Mohamed H. (2015), Short-term perceptual training of music and its effect on neural encoding, International Journal of Health Sciences & Research, 5(5): 347–356.
9. Fritz J., Elhilali M., Shamma S. (2005), Active listening: Task-dependent plasticity of spectrotemporal receptive fields in primary auditory cortex, Hearing Research, 206(1–2): 159–176, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2005.01.015
10. He N., Mills J.H., Ahlstrom J.B., Dubno J.R. (2008), Age-related differences in the temporal modulation transfer function with pure-tone carriers, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 124(6): 3841–3849, https://doi.org/10.1121/1.2998779
11. Helfer K.S., Wilber L.A. (1990), Hearing loss, aging, and speech perception in reverberation and noise, Journal of Speech & Hearing Research, 33(1): 149–155, https://doi.org/10.1044/jshr.3301.149
12. Jain C., Mohamed H., Kumar U.A. (2014), Short-term musical training and psychoacoustical abilities, Audiology Research, 4(102): 102, https://doi.org/10.4081/audiores.2014.102
13. Jain C., Mohamed H., Kumar U.A. (2015), The effect of short-term musical training on speech perception in noise, Audiology Research, 5(5): 111, https://doi.org/10.4081/audiores.2015.111
14. Kraus N., Chandrasekaran B. (2010), Music training for the development of auditory skills, Science and Society, 11(8): 599–606, https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2882
15. Kraus N., White-Schwoch T. (2014), Music training: Lifelong investment to protect the brain from aging and hearing loss, Acoustics Australia, 42(2): 117–123.
16. Luo F., Wang Q., Kashani A., Yan J. (2008), Corticofugal modulation of initial sound processing in the brain, Journal of Neuroscience, 28(45): 11615–11621, https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3972-08.2008
17. Methi R., Avinash, Kumar U. (2009), Development of sentence material for Quick Speech in Noise test (Quick SIN) in Kannada, Journal of Indian Speech and Hearing Association, 23: 59–65.
18. Mills J.H., Schmiedt R.A., Schulte B.A., Dubno J.R. (2006), Age-related hearing loss: A loss of voltage, not hair cells, Seminars in Hearing, 27(4): 228–236, https://doi.org/10.1055/s-2006-954849
19. Mishra S.K., Panda M.R. (2014), Experience-dependent learning of auditory temporal resolution, NeuroReport, 25(2): 134–137, https://doi.org/10.1097/WNR.00000000000093
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21. Musacchia G., Sams M., Skoe E., Kraus N. (2007), Musicians have enhanced subcortical auditory and audiovisual processing of speech and music, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(40): 15894–15898, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0701498104
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23. Nambi P.M.A., Sangamanatha A.V., Vikas M.D., Bhat J.S., Shama K. (2016), Perception of spectral ripples and speech perception in noise by older adults, Ageing International, 41(3): 283–297, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12126-016-9248-4
24. Parbery-Clark A., Anderson S., Kraus N. (2013), Musicians change their tune: How hearing loss alters the neural code, Hearing Research, 302: 121–131, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2013.03.009
25. Parbery-Clark A., Skoe E., Kraus N. (2009a), Musical experience limits the degradative effects of background noise on the neural processing of sound, Journal of Neuroscience, 29(45): 14100–14107, https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3256-09.2009
26. Parbery-Clark A., Skoe E., Lam C., Kraus N. (2009b), Musician enhancement for speech-in-noise, Ear and Hearing, 30(6): 653–661, https://doi.org/10.1097/AUD.0b013e3181b412e9
27. Parbery-Clark A., Tierney A., Strait D.L., Kraus N. (2012), Musicians have fine-tuned neural distinction of speech syllables, Neuroscience, 219: 111–119, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2012.05.042
28. Patel A.D. (2011), Why would musical training benefit the neural encoding of speech? The OPERA hypothesis, Frontiers in Psychology, 2, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00142
29. Rabbitt P. (1990), Mild hearing loss can cause apparent memory failures which increase with age and reduce with IQ, Acta Oto-Laryngologica, 111(476): 167–175, https://doi.org/10.3109/00016489109127274
30. Rammsayer T., Altenmüller E. (2006), Temporal information processing in musicians and nonmusicians, Music Perception, 24(1): 37–48, https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2006.24.1.37
31. Schmiedt R.A., Lang H., Okamura H., Schulte B.A. (2002), Effects of furosemide applied chronically to the round window: A model of metabolic presbyacusis, Journal of Neuroscience, 22(21): 9643–9650, https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.22-21-09643.2002
32. Schoof T., Rosen S. (2014), The role of auditory and cognitive factors in understanding speech in noise by normal-hearing older listeners, Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 6, https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00307
33. Schuknecht H.F., Gacek M.R. (1993), Cochlear pathology in presbycusis, The Annals of Otology, Rhinology, and Laryngology, 102(1): 1–16, https://doi.org/10.1177/00034894931020S101
34. Slater J., Skoe E., Strait D.L., O’Connell S., Thompson E., Kraus N. (2015), Music training improves speech-in-noise perception: Longitudinal evidence from a community-based music program, Behavioural Brain Research, 291: 244–252, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2015.05.026
35. Strait D.L., Kraus N. (2011), Can you hear me now? Musical training shapes functional brain networks for selective auditory attention and hearing speech in noise, Frontiers in Psychology, 2, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00113
36. Tun P.A., O’Kane G., Wingfield A. (2002), Distraction by competing speech in young and older adult listeners, Psychology and Aging, 17(3): 453–467, https://doi.org/10.1037/0882-7974.17.3.453
37. Tun P.A., Williams V.A., Small B.J., Hafter E.R. (2012), The effects of aging on auditory processing and cognition, American Journal of Audiology, 21(2): 344–350, https://doi.org/10.1044/1059-0889%282012/12-0030%29
38. Verhaeghen P., Cerella J. (2002), Aging, executive control, and attention: a review of meta-analyses, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 26(7): 849–857, https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-7634%2802%2900071-4
39. Wangemann P. (2002), K+ cycling and the endocochlear potential. Hearing Research, 165(1–2): 1–9, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-5955%2802%2900279-4
40. White-Schwoch T., Carr K.W., Anderson S., Strait D.L., Kraus N. (2013), Older adults benefit from music training early in life: Biological evidence for long-term training-driven plasticity, Journal of Neuroscience, 33(45): 17667–17674, https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2560-13.2013
41. Zendel B.R., Alain C. (2009), Concurrent sound segregation is enhanced in musicians, Cognitive Neuroscience, 21(8): 1488–1498, https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2009.21140
42. Zhang Y., Suga N., Yan J. (1997), Corticofugal modulation of frequency processing in bat auditory system, Nature, 387(6636): 900–903, https://doi.org/10.1038/43180
