Mai, Guangting;
Jiang, Zhizhao;
Wang, Xinran;
Tachtsidis, Ilias;
Howell, Peter;
(2024)
Neuroplasticity of Speech-in-Noise Processing in Older Adults Assessed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS).
Brain Topography
10.1007/s10548-024-01070-2.
(In press).
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Abstract
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), a non-invasive optical neuroimaging technique that is portable and acoustically silent, has become a promising tool for evaluating auditory brain functions in hearing-vulnerable individuals. This study, for the first time, used fNIRS to evaluate neuroplasticity of speech-in-noise processing in older adults. Ten older adults, most of whom had moderate-to-mild hearing loss, participated in a 4-week speech-in-noise training. Their speech-in-noise performances and fNIRS brain responses to speech (auditory sentences in noise), non-speech (spectrally-rotated speech in noise) and visual (flashing chequerboards) stimuli were evaluated pre- (T0) and post-training (immediately after training, T1; and after a 4-week retention, T2). Behaviourally, speech-in-noise performances were improved after retention (T2 vs. T0) but not immediately after training (T1 vs. T0). Neurally, we intriguingly found brain responses to speech vs. non-speech decreased significantly in the left auditory cortex after retention (T2 vs. T0 and T2 vs. T1) for which we interpret as suppressed processing of background noise during speech listening alongside the significant behavioural improvements. Meanwhile, functional connectivity within and between multiple regions of temporal, parietal and frontal lobes was significantly enhanced in the speech condition after retention (T2 vs. T0). We also found neural changes before the emergence of significant behavioural improvements. Compared to pre-training, responses to speech vs. non-speech in the left frontal/prefrontal cortex were decreased significantly both immediately after training (T1 vs. T0) and retention (T2 vs. T0), reflecting possible alleviation of listening efforts. Finally, connectivity was significantly decreased between auditory and higher-level non-auditory (parietal and frontal) cortices in response to visual stimuli immediately after training (T1 vs. T0), indicating decreased cross-modal takeover of speech-related regions during visual processing. The results thus showed that neuroplasticity can be observed not only at the same time with, but also before, behavioural changes in speech-in-noise perception. To our knowledge, this is the first fNIRS study to evaluate speech-based auditory neuroplasticity in older adults. It thus provides important implications for current research by illustrating the promises of detecting neuroplasticity using fNIRS in hearing-vulnerable individuals.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Neuroplasticity of Speech-in-Noise Processing in Older Adults Assessed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10548-024-01070-2 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10548-024-01070-2 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Auditory neuroplasticity, Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), Older adults, Speech-in-noise perception |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS 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 > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Experimental Psychology UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Med Phys and Biomedical Eng |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10195064 |
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