Purpose: Aging increases risk for hearing loss, cognitive decline, and social isolation; however, the nature of their interconnection remains unclear. This study examined the interplay between age-related hearing loss, cognitive decline, and social isolation in adults by testing the ability to understand speech in background noise, a challenge…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if there are age-related differences in semantic processing with linguistic and nonlinguistic masking, as measured by the N400. Method: Sixteen young (19-31 years) and 16 middle-aged (41-57 years) adults with relatively normal hearing sensitivity were asked to determine whether word pairs were…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between hearing loss, cognitive status, and a range of health outcomes over a period of 2 years in a sample of older adults who are enrolled in Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, which is a Medicare/Medicaid beneficiary program for individuals who are nursing home…

Purpose: Within-individual pharyngeal swallowing pressure variability differs among pharyngeal regions in healthy individuals and increases with age. It remains unknown if pharyngeal pressure variability is impacted by volitional swallowing tasks. We hypothesized that pressure variability would increase during volitional swallowing maneuvers and…

Purpose: This study evaluated the efficacy of a 4-week straw phonation in water (SPW) exercise program on aging-related vocal fold atrophy (VFA), with a secondary objective to examine the immediate effects of SPW exercises. Method: Thirty-eight older adults aged 60 years and above formally diagnosed with aging-related VFA were randomly assigned…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore potential differences in suprathreshold auditory function among native and nonnative speakers of English as a function of age. Method: Retrospective analyses were performed on three large data sets containing suprathreshold auditory tests completed by 5,572 participants who were self-identified…

Purpose: Prior research extensively documented challenges in recognizing verbal and nonverbal emotion among older individuals when compared with younger counterparts. However, the nature of these age-related changes remains unclear. The present study investigated how older and younger adults comprehend four basic emotions (i.e., anger, happiness,…

Purpose: This study aimed to examine how aging and modifications of critical acoustic parameters may affect the perception of whispered speech as a degraded signal. Method: Forty Mandarin-speaking adults were included in the study. Part 1 of the study compared the perception of Mandarin lexical tones, vowels, and syllables in older and younger…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the aging effects on the categorical perception (CP) of Mandarin lexical Tones 1-4 and Tones 1-2 in noise. It also investigated whether listeners' categorical tone perception in noise correlated with their general tone identification of 20 natural vowel-plus-tone signals in noise. Method: Twelve…

Purpose: This descriptive cohort pilot study, using a convenience sample, examined whether evidence from vocal function measures, auditory-perceptual ratings, and/or endoscopic signs of aging supported singing in senior chorales as a possible intervention to preserve the speaking voice in aging adults. Method: Thirteen singers and five nonsinging…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conceptualize the subtle balancing act between language input and prediction (cognitive priming of future input) to achieve understanding of communicated content. When understanding fails, reconstructive post-diction is initiated. Three memory systems play important roles: working memory (WM), episodic…

Purpose: The purpose of this tutorial is to summarize how sex hormones affect both laryngeal senescence and neuromuscular response to exercise, highlighting the importance of considering sex differences in developing treatment for the senescent voice. Conclusion: Men and women's voices are sexually dimorphic throughout the life span, including…

Purpose: The goal was to evaluate the potential effects of increasing hearing loss and advancing age on spectral envelope perception. Method: Spectral modulation detection was measured as a function of spectral modulation frequency from 0.5 to 8.0 cycles/octave. The spectral modulation task involved discrimination of a noise carrier (3 octaves…

Purpose: This article aimed to document longitudinal changes in auditory function, including measures of temporal processing, and to examine the associations between observed changes in auditory and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults. Method: This was a prospective longitudinal study of 98 adults (66 women) with baseline ages…

Purpose: The effects of neurological diseases on the auditory system have been a notable issue for investigators because the auditory pathway is closely associated with neural systems. The purposes of this study are to evaluate the efferent auditory system function and hearing quality in Parkinson's disease (PD) and to compare the findings with…