Clear Speech for Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Trial Summary
What is the purpose of this trial?
Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is among the most prevalent chronic conditions in aging and has a profoundly negative effect on speech comprehension, leading to increased social isolation, reduced quality of life, and increased risk for the development of dementia in older adulthood. Typical audiological tests and interventions, which focus on measuring and restoring audibility, do not explain the full range of cognitive difficulties that adults with hearing loss experience in speech comprehension. For example, adults with SNHL have to work disproportionally harder to decode acoustically degraded speech. That additional effort is thought to diminish shared executive and attentional resources for higher-level language processes, impacting subsequent comprehension and memory, even when speech is completely intelligible. This phenomenon has been referred to as listening effort (LE). There is a growing understanding that these cognitive factors are a critical and often "hidden effect" of hearing loss. At the same time, the effects of LE on the neural mechanisms of language processing and memory in SNHL are currently not well understood. In order to develop evidence-based assessments and interventions to improve comprehension and memory in SNHL, it is critical that the cognitive and neural mechanisms of LE and its consequences for speech comprehension are elucidated. In this project, the investigators adopt a multi-method approach, combining methods from clinical audiology, psycholinguistics, and cognitive neuroscience to address this gap of knowledge. Specifically, the investigators adopt a novel and innovative method of co-registering pupillometry (a reliable physiological measure of LE) and language-related event-related brain potential (ERP) measures during real-time speech processing to characterize the effects of clear speech (i.e., a listener-oriented speaking style that is spontaneously adopted to improve intelligibility when speakers are aware of a perception difficulty on behalf of the listener) on high-level language processes (e.g., semantic retrieval, syntactic integration) and subsequent speech memory in older adults with SNHL. This innovative work addresses a time-sensitive gap in the literature regarding the identification of objective and reliable markers of specific neurocognitive processes impacted by speech clarity and LE in age-related SNHL.
Eligibility Criteria
This trial is for right-handed English speakers aged 60-90 with normal cognitive function (MoCA score ≥25). Participants can have mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss but must not have psychiatric/neurological illnesses, eye diseases affecting pupil dilation, or be on certain drugs that alter brain function.Inclusion Criteria
Exclusion Criteria
Timeline
Screening
Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial
Baseline Assessment
Participants complete a standardized hearing assessment, neuropsychological assessment, and audibility control assessment
Experimental Session
Participants undergo EEG and pupillometry measurements during speech processing tasks
Follow-up
Participants are monitored for any immediate effects post-experiment and complete a delayed recognition memory task
Treatment Details
Interventions
- Clear Speech
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Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?
University of Utah
Lead Sponsor