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

Molly J. Henry (), Björn Herrmann, Dunja Kunke and Jonas Obleser
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Molly J. Henry: Max Planck Research Group ‘Auditory Cognition’, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Björn Herrmann: Max Planck Research Group ‘Auditory Cognition’, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Dunja Kunke: Max Planck Research Group ‘Auditory Cognition’, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Jonas Obleser: Max Planck Research Group ‘Auditory Cognition’, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences

Nature Communications, 2017, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract 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.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15801

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