Speech Perception and High Cognitive Demand

Part of paid clinical trials in College Park, Maryland.

Sponsor
University of Maryland, College Park
Study ID
NCT04997577
Status
Recruiting
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Conditions

  • Aging
  • Speech Intelligibility

Eligibility Criteria

Sex
ALL
Age
65 Years - 85 Years
Healthy Volunteers
Accepted

Interventions

  • Auditory-cognitive training paradigm — BEHAVIORAL
    The investigators developed an American English version of the Nottingham (UK) PLUS training paradigm in which listeners are asked to focus and listen to one speaker while ignoring another speaker. The paradigm is designed to optimally enhance the possibility of benefit: an adaptive procedure is employed to train each individual at their own level to make the task challenging. A short-term memory component, in which listeners are asked to remember what a designated speaker said two sentences prior, was added to the auditory training paradigm to make the task more challenging. Participants will be asked to recall the keywords of the to-be-attended speaker. The sentences will be presented in a two-down one-up adaptive procedure in which the ratio of the levels of the to-be-attended and to-be-ignored speaker will be adjusted based on the correctly recalled key words.
  • Auditory training paradigm — BEHAVIORAL
    The investigators developed an American English version of the Nottingham (UK) PLUS training paradigm in which listeners are asked to focus and listen to one speaker while ignoring another speaker. The paradigm is designed to optimally enhance the possibility of benefit: an adaptive procedure is employed to train each individual at their own level to make the task challenging. Participants will be asked to recall the keywords of the to-be-attended speaker. The sentences will be presented in a two-down one-up adaptive procedure in which the ratio of the levels of the to-be-attended and to-be-ignored speaker will be adjusted based on the correctly recalled key words.

Study Details

With advancing age, adults experience increasing speech understanding difficulties in challenging situations. Currently, speech-in-noise difficulties are rehabilitated by providing hearing aids. For older normal-hearing adults, however, hearing devices do not provide much benefit since these adults do not have decreased hearing sensitivity. The goal of the "Speech Perception and High Cognitive Demand" project is to evaluate the benefit of a new auditory-cognitive training paradigm. In the present study neural (as measured by pupillometry and magnetoencephalography) and behavioral changes of speech-in-noise perception from pretest to posttest will be examined in older adults (age 65 - 85 years) assigned to one of three training groups: 1) Active Control Group: sessions of watching informational videos, 2) Auditory Training Group: sessions of auditory training listening to one of two speakers in everyday scenarios (e.g., driving directions) and needing to recall what one speaker said in the previous sentence, and 3) Auditory-cognitive training group: identical to the auditory training group, except participants will be asked to remember information from two previous sentences. Changes in speech-in-noise perception will be examined for the three groups of older adults and gains will be compared to a control group of young, normal hearing adults (18-30 years) that is not part of the clinical trial and will not undergo any training.

Key Dates

Start date
Sep 27, 2021
Status verified
Apr 2025
Primary completion
May 30, 2026
Completion
Dec 31, 2027

Study Design

Enrollment
100 participants (estimated)
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT

Arms

  • Experimental: Auditory training paradigm
    Participants perform speech-in-noise perception tasks with real-world scenarios.
  • Experimental: Auditory-cognitive training paradigm
    Participants perform speech-in-noise perception tasks with real-world scenarios. A short-term memory component is added to the training paradigm to make the task more engaging and challenging.

Primary Outcome Measure

Change in speech-in-noise perception [ Time Frame: Week 1-2 (pretest) and Week 5-6 (posttest) ]

Central Contacts

Locations (2)

FacilityCityStateZIPSite coordinators
Department of Hearing and Speech SciencesCollege ParkMaryland20742
Samira B Anderson, PhD
Michael A Johns, PhD (SUB_INVESTIGATOR)
Dushyanthi Karunathilake (SUB_INVESTIGATOR)
Maryland Neuroimaging CenterCollege ParkMaryland20742
Sandy Collier
Stefanie Kuchinsky, PhD
Michael A Johns, PhD (SUB_INVESTIGATOR)
Dushyanthi Karunathilake (SUB_INVESTIGATOR)

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Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences· College Park, MDMaryland Neuroimaging Center· College Park, MD

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