I can’t hear you clearly. Maybe it’s not about ears

“Can you repeat it again?” sometimes when we say something to others, we may have to repeat it several times, especially with the old people. Most of the time, we attribute this to the back of the ear, which is not good. However, the fact may not be so simple. They can hear very well, but they have brain problems

In a recent interdisciplinary study published in the Journal of neuroscience, researchers from the University of Maryland determined that the brains of some elderly people often can’t let them grasp the sound we want them to hear under the influence of environmental noise, even if their ear function is completely OK. This study focuses on the brain’s concentration and processing of a special feature in noisy environment The ability to make a speech brings together professionals from different disciplines such as listening and language science, neuroscience and cognitive science, biology, and systems science. This study shows that the normal hearing elderly aged 61-73 receive significantly less information when listening to a speech in noisy environment than those aged 18-30.

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When the subjects listened to others, the researchers used two different scans to monitor their brain electrophysiological activities. The experiment was repeated and compared in a quiet environment and a certain noise environment. The researchers mainly monitored two parts of the brain. One is the midbrain, which is responsible for the basic processing of all sounds in most vertebrates; the other is the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for the basic processing of all sounds Domain in human evolution is relatively large, part of the dedicated voice processing

In the young group, the midbrain generates a signal to match tasks in every situation, such as speech sounds in quiet environment, which are relatively clear and distinguishable from other noises in noisy environment. However, in the old group, even in quiet environment, the feedback quality of the brain to speech signals also deteriorates, worse in noisy environment Neural signal recording shows that young subjects can process the received speech signal in a relatively short time, while old subjects need more time to process the same signal

“For the elderly, even without any noise, their brains have been unable to process the voice information received by their ears in time. In noisy environments, they need more time and effort to recognize the really useful signals,” said researcher Simon

“This may be related to the imbalance of excitation and inhibition of neural activity in the brain of the elderly. This imbalance impairs the brain’s ability to correctly handle auditory stimulation,” said another researcher, presacco

This gradual erosion of brain function is a part of the natural aging process, and is one of the typical manifestations of aging. Researchers later tried to help the elderly improve their brain’s ability to process voice stimulation through some skills training for the brain, hoping that there will be positive research results in the future

What are the tips for communicating with the elderly?

1) before talking with the elderly, make sure they are focused;

2) when talking with the elderly, try to face to face; visual information can make up for the speech information that their brain does not capture and help communication;

3) try to choose a quiet environment when talking with the elderly;

4) when talking with the elderly, try to enunciate clearly, speak at a normal or slow speed; especially when communicating with the healthy listening elderly, you don’t need to increase the volume, but you need to slow down the pace of communication.