How does a history of mild traumatic brain injury alter speech understanding in complex auditory environments?

Abstract

Listening in complex environments is a challenge for most observers, but particularly for those with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Here, we explored the relationship between working memory (WM) and the ability to understand speech in competition, using three spoken sentences presented simultaneously via earphones using a Virtual Spatial Array. The three utterances were either presented at the same spatial location or different locations. Participants completed both an auditory/visual WM task and the competing speech task. The WM task involves auditory and visual list recall as well as the ability to recall lists from one modality while ignoring the other or while attending to both modalities. Fifty adults, some with and some without a history of mTBI, participated. Their ages ranged from 18 to 74 years and they either had normal hearing or moderate hearing loss. Results showed relationships between the WM and speech tasks consistent with previous results. Further analyses will be presented exploring the ways in which a history of mTBI influences the ability to use (1) spatial cues and (2) WM to make sense of competing speech utterances.