Presbycusis compounds multiple peripheral and cognitive deficits, hindering isolation

Evidence

Age related hearing loss (presbycusis) makes it difficult to understand speech in noisy environments and multi-speaker environments (Moore 1995 ; Humes and Dubno 2010 ). There are several factors involved in presbycusis: loss of frequency selectivity, recruitment, and loss of temporal fine structure (Moore 2007 ). The isolation and measurement of these different aspects of hearing impairment (HI) in elderly listeners is not straightforward, partly because they often have multiple auditory problems, and partly because they may also have more central cognitive problems including depression. Together the problems make it difficult to obtain sufficient behavioral data to isolate different aspects of HI (Jerger et al. 1989 ; Lopez et al. 2003 ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4045

Categorization

• XREF: Names the three canonical presbycusis factors (loss of frequency selectivity, recruitment, loss of temporal fine structure) that recur throughout hearing-science literature.