Altered neural encoding of vowels in noise does not affect behavioral vowel discrimination in gerbils with age-related hearing loss.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Understanding speech in a noisy environment, as opposed to speech in quiet, becomes increasingly more difficult with increasing age. Using the quiet-aged gerbil, we studied the effects of aging on speech-in-noise processing. Specifically, behavioral vowel discrimination and the encoding of these vowels by single auditory-nerve fibers were compared, to elucidate some of the underlying mechanisms of age-related speech-in-noise perception deficits.

Methods

Young-adult and quiet-aged Mongolian gerbils, of either sex, were trained to discriminate a deviant naturally-spoken vowel in a sequence of vowel standards against a speech-like background noise. In addition, we recorded responses from single auditory-nerve fibers of young-adult and quiet-aged gerbils while prese

SUBMITTER: Heeringa AN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10682387 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature