Understanding the Effects of Listening Effort on Sentence Processing and Memory in Sensorineural Hearing Loss Using Electrophysiology and Pupillometry

What this Trial Is About

Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is a common chronic condition among older adults that negatively affects speech comprehension, leading to social isolation, reduced quality of life, and increased dementia risk. This research aims to better understand how listening effort (LE)—the extra mental work needed to understand speech—affects language processing and memory in older adults with SNHL. The study combines clinical audiology, psycholinguistics, and cognitive neuroscience to explore these effects using novel techniques. Participants will experience all study conditions in a 2 x 3 within-subjects design involving sentences spoken in either conversational or clear speech styles. The sentences include normal, semantic violation, or syntactic violation target words. Speech will be presented with background noise to create acoustic challenges. Data will be collected through EEG brain activity recordings and pupil dilation measurements to assess listening effort and language processing. After listening, participants will complete a memory test identifying sentences and recalling target words. The study involves a single session lasting 3 to 4 hours, including hearing and cognitive assessments, an audibility control task, and the main EEG/pupillometry experiment. Participants will be seated in a quiet room while listening to sentences and undergoing continuous brain and pupil monitoring. The primary outcomes include measurements of brain responses (N400 and P600 amplitudes and latencies), pupil dilation during listening, and delayed recognition memory immediately after the listening task. Participants will be debriefed after completion.

Effects of Clear Speech on Listening Effort and Memory in Sentence Processing