Individual perceptual profiles derived from automated psychophysical measures

Abstract

Older adults with normal pure-tone thresholds or with age-related hearing loss face difficulties understanding speech in noisy environments. Despite this common challenge, the potential root deficits are likely heterogeneous across listeners and vary in the extent of severity beyond pure tone sensitivity. To better serve patients with listening challenges, it is believed that more precision in diagnostics and treatment are currently needed, and to that end, the purpose of the present study was to achieve more robust auditory perceptual profiles from a diverse population. Specifically, the present study tested three groups of listeners (young, normal hearing; older, normal hearing, and older, hearing-impaired; n = 20 per group) on a large battery of psychophysical measures using the Portable Automated Rapid Testing (PART) platform, which includes automated, unsupervised measures of: spectral resolution, temporal resolution, informational masking, binaural processing, working memory, and visual-spatial processing. Data show significant differences between the younger and older listeners, and broad variations in perceptual measures among the older listeners with normal hearing and hearing loss. These multi-dimensional variations were reduced using confirmatory factor analysis to reveal unique perceptual profiles that one day may inform targeted intervention options. [Work supported by NIHR21DC017832 and NIHR01DC01505.]