Füllgrabe, C;
Öztürk, OC;
(2022)
Immediate Effects of (Simulated) Age-Related Hearing Loss on Cognitive Processing and Performance for the Backward-Digit-Span Task.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
, 14
, Article 912746. 10.3389/fnagi.2022.912746.
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Abstract
The recall of auditorily presented sequences of digits in reverse order (also known as the Backward Digit Span, BDS) is considered to reflect a person’s information storage and processing abilities which have been linked to speech-in-noise intelligibility. However, especially in aging research and audiology, persons who are administered the BDS task are often affected by hearing loss (HL). If uncorrected, HL can have immediate assessment-format-related effects on cognitive-test performance and can result, in the long term, in neuroplastic changes impacting cognitive functioning. In the present study, an impairment-simulation approach, mimicking mild-to-moderate age-related HLs typical for persons aged 65, 75, and 85 years, was used in 19 young normal-hearing participants to evaluate the impact of HL on cognitive performance and the cognitive processes probed by the BDS task. Participants completed the BDS task in several listening conditions, as well as several commonly used visual tests of short-term and working memory. The results indicated that BDS performance was impaired by a simulated HL representing that of persons aged 75 years and above. In the normal-hearing condition, BDS performance correlated positively with both performance on tests of short-term memory and performance on tests of working memory. In the listening condition simulating moderate HL (as experienced by the average 85-year-old person), BDS performance only correlated with performance on working-memory tests. In conclusion, simulated (and, by extrapolation, actual) age-related HL negatively affects cognitive-test performance and may change the composition of the cognitive processes associated with the completion of a cognitive task.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Immediate Effects of (Simulated) Age-Related Hearing Loss on Cognitive Processing and Performance for the Backward-Digit-Span Task |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fnagi.2022.912746 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.912746 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2022 Füllgrabe and Öztürk. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | backward digit span, cognitive assessment, impairment simulation, age-related hearing loss, short-term memory, working memory |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > The Ear Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10159037 |
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