title: Relationship between Auditory and Cognitive Abilities in Older Adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective was to evaluate the association of peripheral and central hearing abilities with cognitive function in older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Recruited from epidemiological studies of aging and cognition at the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, participants were a community-dwelling cohort of older adults (range 63-98 years) without diagnosis of dementia. The cohort contained roughly equal numbers of Black (n=61) and White (n=63) subjects with groups similar in terms of age, gender, and years of education. Auditory abilities were measured with pure-tone audiometry, speech-in-noise perception, and discrimination thresholds for both static and dynamic spectral patterns. Cognitive performance was evaluated with a 12-test battery assessing episodic, semantic, and working memory, perceptual speed, and visuospatial abilities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the auditory measures, only the static and dynamic spectral-pattern discrimination thresholds were associated with cognitive performance in a regression model that included the demographic covariates race, age, gender, and years of education. Subsequent analysis indicated substantial shared variance among the covariates race and both measures of spectral-pattern discrimination in accounting for cognitive performance. Among cognitive measures, working memory and visuospatial abilities showed the strongest interrelationship to spectral-pattern discrimination performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For a cohort of older adults without diagnosis of dementia, neither hearing thresholds nor speech-in-noise ability showed significant association with a summary measure of global cognition. In contrast, the two auditory metrics of spectral-pattern discrimination ability significantly contributed to a regression model prediction of cognitive performance, demonstrating association of central auditory ability to cognitive status using auditory metrics that avoided the confounding effect of speech materials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Stanley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sheft
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Valeriy
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Shafiro
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America; Departments of Neurological Sciences and Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Lisa L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Barnes
authors.affiliation: Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
authors.forename: Raj C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Shah
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests