Spectral modulation detection training in older adults with hearing loss.

Abstract

Individuals with hearing loss are poorer than normal‐hearing listeners at detecting patterns of peaks and valleys of sound level spread across audio frequency (spectral modulation detection)—an important skill for speech and music perception. In this preliminary report we examined whether listeners with hearing loss could improve on spectral modulation detection with practice. We trained older adults with sensorineural hearing loss (n=7) ∼1 hr/day for 7 days to distinguish a 400–3200 Hz noiseband with a flat‐spectrum from one with a 2 cyc/oct sinusoidal spectral modulation. Modulation depth was varied adaptively to determine the detection threshold. Their mean thresholds improved significantly from 18.9 to 12.8 dB. These listeners also improved at both a lower and a higher untrained spectral modulation frequency (1 and 4 cyc/oct), but showed no change on a measure of frequency selectivity. Interestingly, a separate group of younger normal‐hearing adults who received the same training (n=7) did not improve on the trained (6.9 to 6.6 dB) or untrained conditions. Normal‐hearing listeners had lower pre‐training thresholds than individuals with hearing loss, and across all listeners the magnitude of individual improvement was correlated to pre‐training threshold (r=0.92). Listener age and/or hearing loss could have contributed to these across‐population differences.