The intellect why older the great unwashed typically ca n’t try very well has very picayune to do with the functional capabilities of their ear , Co. Existreports . Instead , as a recent study in theJournal of Neurophysiology(freely availablehere ) investigates , it has more to do with how the brain process fathom , and how that ability deteriorates as we age .
Researchers at the University of Maryland , College Park report that the deterioration is due to aging ’s effect on the brain ’s mesencephalon ( colligate with learn as well as vision and motor command ) and cortex ( relate with opinion and language ) . The study probe 17 younger adults and 15 previous people with no signs of dementia . They were postulate to take heed to an audiobook while another narrated audiobook played in the background .
When trying to differentiate between the voices of two different loudspeaker , the mesencephalon of older adults do n’t answer as strongly as those of younger people . The older adults ' nous could n’t encode the auditory signals as well , and they took longer to process words , especially when there were two competing phonation . The senior learning ability seem to be less up to of picking out one sound out of many .
However , their cortex in reality reconstructed the amplitude of the speech they try in the brain with great truth — an magnified response , which may unwrap why older people need to give more attention to action the noise of people talking . Asthe field of study ’s abstractnotes , this reception suggests " an years - related over ( or inefficient ) consumption of cognitive resources that may explicate their difficulty in processing lecture quarry while seek to ignore interfere noise . "
So the next time you encounter an elderly individual who is intemperate of audition , do n’t put out trying to speak louder . It wo n’t help them hear you any better . Instead , move your conversation to a place with less background noise .
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