Aging affects the balance of neural entrainment and top-down neural modulation in the listening brain

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 15801 - 11
• Main Authors: Henry, Molly J., Herrmann, Björn, Kunke, Dunja, Obleser, Jonas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 27.06.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 631/378/2612; 631/378/2619/2618; 631/378/2649/1723; Acoustic Stimulation; Adolescent; Adult; Adults; Aged; Aging; Aging (artificial); Aging - physiology; Auditory Perception; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiology; Cognitive ability; EEG; Electroencephalography; Entrainment; Female; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Listening; Male; Middle Aged; Modulation; multidisciplinary; Older people; Oscillations; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Speech; Young Adult; Young adults
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15801

Healthy aging is accompanied by listening difficulties, including decreased speech comprehension, that stem from an ill-understood combination of sensory and cognitive changes. Here, we use electroencephalography to demonstrate that auditory neural oscillations of older adults entrain less firmly and less flexibly to speech-paced (∼3 Hz) rhythms than younger adults’ during attentive listening. These neural entrainment effects are distinct in magnitude and origin from the neural response to sound per se . Non-entrained parieto-occipital alpha (8–12 Hz) oscillations are enhanced in young adults, but suppressed in older participants, during attentive listening. Entrained neural phase and task-induced alpha amplitude exert opposite, complementary effects on listening performance: higher alpha amplitude is associated with reduced entrainment-driven behavioural performance modulation. Thus, alpha amplitude as a task-driven, neuro-modulatory signal can counteract the behavioural corollaries of neural entrainment. Balancing these two neural strategies may present new paths for intervention in age-related listening difficulties. The changes that accompany age-related decreases in speech comprehension are not yet understood. Here, authors show that older adults are less able to entrain to speech-paced auditory rhythms and that the behavioural consequences can be counteracted by top-down neural modulation.