ArticleTrends in hearing
The Relative Contribution of Cochlear Synaptopathy and Reduced Inhibition to Age-Related Hearing Impairment for People With Normal Audiograms.
Article in Trends in hearing. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of age and noise exposure history on auditory nerve response amplitudes: A systematic review, study, and meta-analysis.Hearing research · 2024Pooled it
- Distinct Roles of Working Memory and Inhibitory Control in Speech-in-Noise Perception.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Parallel Age-Related Cochlear Neural Degeneration and Cortical Gain Adaptation in Normal-Hearing Humans.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- From Clinic to Reality: Integrating Sound Field Testing and Hearing Quality Measures in Cochlear Implant Users.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Auditory-cognitive contributions to speech-in-noise perception determined with structural equation modelling of a large sample.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Consequences and Mechanisms of Noise-Induced Cochlear Synaptopathy and Hidden Hearing Loss, With Focuses on Signal Perception in Noise and Temporal Processing.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Review
- Prognostic significance of the QuickSIN score for future hearing threshold deterioration.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Age-Related Decline in Neural Phase-Locking to Envelope and Temporal Fine Structure Revealed by Frequency Following Responses: A Potential Signature of Cochlear Synaptopathy Impairing Speech Intelligibility.Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO · 2025Article
- Speech sound discrimination in background noise across the lifespan: a comparative study in Mongolian gerbils and humans.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
- Intraoperative Compound Action Potentials as a Predictor of Postoperative Cortical Auditory Evoked Potentials in Cochlear Implant Users.Audiology & neuro-otology · 2025Article
- DX243 counteracts both acoustic trauma-induced reduction in cortical brain oscillations and cochlear synaptopathy.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Unravelling hidden hearing loss.eLife · 2024Article
- Effects of Age and Noise Exposure History on Auditory Nerve Response Amplitudes: A Systematic Review, Study, and Meta-Analysis.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Cochlear Ribbon Synapses in Aged Gerbils.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Article
- Perceptual Consequences of Cochlear Deafferentation in Humans.Trends in hearingReview
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 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Older people often show auditory temporal processing deficits and speech-in-noise intelligibility difficulties even when their audiogram is clinically normal. The causes of such problems remain unclear. Some studies have suggested that for people with normal audiograms, age-related hearing impairments may be due to a cognitive decline, while others have suggested that they may be caused by cochlear synaptopathy. Here, we explore an alternative hypothesis, namely that age-related hearing deficits are associated with decreased inhibition. For human adults (N = 30) selected to cover a reasonably wide age range (25-59 years), with normal audiograms and normal cognitive function, we measured speech reception thresholds in noise (SRTNs) for disyllabic words, gap detection thresholds (GDTs), and frequency modulation detection thresholds (FMDTs). We also measured the rate of growth (slope) of auditory brainstem response wave-I amplitude with increasing level as an indirect indicator of cochlear synaptopathy, and the interference inhibition score in the Stroop color and word test (SCWT) as a proxy for inhibition. As expected, performance in the auditory tasks worsened (SRTNs, GDTs, and FMDTs increased), and wave-I slope and SCWT inhibition scores decreased with ageing. Importantly, SRTNs, GDTs, and FMDTs were not related to wave-I slope but worsened with decreasing SCWT inhibition. Furthermore, after partialling out the effect of SCWT inhibition, age was no longer related to SRTNs or GDTs and became less strongly related to FMDTs. Altogether, results suggest that for people with normal audiograms, age-related deficits in auditory temporal processing and speech-in-noise intelligibility are mediated by decreased inhibition rather than cochlear synaptopathy.
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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.