Electrophysiological Markers of Aging in the Auditory System

No AccessPerspectives on Hearing and Hearing Disorders: Research and DiagnosticsArticle1 Nov 2014Electrophysiological Markers of Aging in the Auditory System Ann Clock Eddins Ann Clock Eddins Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South FloridaTampa, FL Google Scholar More articles by this author https://doi.org/10.1044/hhd18.2.44 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationTrack Citations ShareFacebookTwitterLinked In Physiological changes in the auditory system are known to underlie perceptual deficits commonly associated with age-related hearing loss (ARHL), such as difficulties understanding speech in background noise and temporal processing. To characterize these functional changes in a clinical population, electrophysiological measures of auditory brainstem and cortical function can be used to index neural markers of aging and ARHL along the auditory pathway. This paper reviews a selection of studies in which electrophysiological techniques from the auditory brainstem response (ABR) to cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEP) were used to identify key changes in neural processing associated with advancing age and related perceptual deficits. Collectively, these results provide objective evidence for declines in temporal and spectral processing in the auditory periphery and central pathway with increasing age independent of hearing loss. Further research is needed to determine how such evidence-based measures might be altered through different forms of rehabilitative intervention. References Anderson, S., Parbery-Clark, A., White-Schwoch, T., & Kraus, N. (2012). Aging affects neural precision of speech encoding.J Neurosci, 32(41), 14156–14164. Google Scholar Anderson, S., Parbery-Clark, A., Yi, H. G., & Kraus, N. (2011). A neural basis of speech-in-noise perception in older adults.Ear Hear, 32(6), 750–757. Google Scholar Bainbridge, K. 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