Publication date: Available online 17 October 2020
Source: Hearing Research
Author(s): Karen S. Helfer, Alexandra Jesse
Highlights
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Changes to subjective and objective hearing are common among middle-aged adults.
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Elevated pure-tone thresholds can explain only a portion of objective problems.
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Audiovisual speech processing remains intact with aging.
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Middle-aged adults exert more effort in speech understanding than younger adults.
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Research on middle-aged adults is important to discover pathways to healthy aging.
Abstract
Middle-aged adults often report a decline in their ability to understand speech in adverse listening situations. However, there has been relatively little research devoted to identifying how early aging affects speech processing, as the majority of investigations into senescent changes in speech understanding compare performance in groups of young and older adults. This paper provides an overview of research on hearing and speech perception in middle-aged adults. Topics covered include both objective and subjective (self-perceived) hearing and speech understanding, listening effort, and audiovisual speech perception. This review ends with justification for future research needed to define the nature, consequences, and remediation of hearing problems in middle-aged adults.
Keywords
Presbycusisagingspeech perceptionaudiovisual speechlistening effort
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