ArticleHearing research2019
Afferent-efferent connectivity between auditory brainstem and cortex accounts for poorer speech-in-noise comprehension in older adults.
Article in Hearing research, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Speech in noise prediction by use of cortical auditory evoked potentials in normal hearing and sensorineural hearing loss: a systematic review.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Pooled it
- Impact of Age-Related Hearing Loss on Brain Connectivity and Cognitive Performance: A Systematic Review.Trends in hearingPooled it
- Structural connectivity of auditory-linguistic brain networks predicts success in speech categorization and listening in noise.Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Age-related hearing loss and dementia-related neuropathology: An analysis of the United Kingdom brains for dementia research cohort.Brain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Performance Monitoring and Cognitive Inhibition during a Speech-in-Noise Task in Older Listeners.Seminars in hearing · 2023Review
- Perceptual warping exposes categorical representations for speech in human brainstem responses.NeuroImage · 2023Article
- Cortical-brainstem interplay during speech perception in older adults with and without hearing loss.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Degree centrality and functional connections in presbycusis with and without cognitive impairments.Brain imaging and behavior · 2022Article
- Brainstem speech encoding is dynamically shaped online by fluctuations in cortical α state.NeuroImage · 2022Article
- Diverse functions of the auditory cortico-collicular pathway.Hearing research · 2022Review
- Musical experience partially counteracts temporal speech processing deficits in putative mild cognitive impairment.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2022Article
- Difference in Network Effects of Pulsatile and Galvanic Stimulation.Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference · 2022Article
- Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation Combined With Listening to Preferred Music Alters Cortical Speech Processing in Older Adults.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Article
- Aberrant brain functional network strength related to cognitive impairment in age-related hearing loss.Frontiers in neurology · 2022Article
- Corticothalamic projections deliver enhanced responses to medial geniculate body as a function of the temporal reliability of the stimulus.The Journal of physiology · 2021Article
- Article
- Defining the Role of Attention in Hierarchical Auditory Processing.Audiology research · 2021Review
- Subcortical rather than cortical sources of the frequency-following response (FFR) relate to speech-in-noise perception in normal-hearing listeners.Neuroscience letters · 2021Article
- Rapid Enhancement of Subcortical Neural Responses to Sine-Wave Speech.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Article
- The effects of aging on peripheral and central auditory function in adults with normal hearing.American journal of translational research · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Speech-in-noise (SIN) comprehension deficits in older adults have been linked to changes in both subcortical and cortical auditory evoked responses. However, older adults' difficulty understanding SIN may also be related to an imbalance in signal transmission (i.e., functional connectivity) between brainstem and auditory cortices. By modeling high-density scalp recordings of speech-evoked responses with sources in brainstem (BS) and bilateral primary auditory cortices (PAC), we show that beyond attenuating neural activity, hearing loss in older adults compromises the transmission of speech information between subcortical and early cortical hubs of the speech network. We found that the strength of afferent BS→PAC neural signaling (but not the reverse efferent flow; PAC→BS) varied with mild declines in hearing acuity and this "bottom-up" functional connectivity robustly predicted older adults' performance in a SIN identification task. Connectivity was also a better predictor of SIN processing than unitary subcortical or cortical responses alone. Our neuroimaging findings suggest that in older adults (i) mild hearing loss differentially reduces neural output at several stages of auditory processing (PAC > BS), (ii) subcortical-cortical connectivity is more sensitive to peripheral hearing loss than top-down (cortical-subcortical) control, and (iii) reduced functional connectivity in afferent auditory pathways plays a significant role in SIN comprehension problems.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.