On the objective electrophysiological estimation of listening effort in different age groups

The basic approaches to fit hearing aids were commonly based on findings of how young persons hear sounds in ideal conditions. In order to improve hearing aid fitting methods, the focus of the new approaches should be based on auditory processing and cognition information of older adults. In previous studies with young subjects, employing tonebursts and in noise embedded syllabic paradigms, we have shown that the Wavelet Phase Synchronization Stability (WPSS) of Auditory Late Responses (ALRs) can serve as an objective indicator of listening effort. The purpose of this preliminary work, which precedes a study with hearing impaired persons, is to examine possible age-related differences in the WPSS and ALRs by testing syllabic paradigms in two different age groups and using two different levels of task complexity. The WPSS discriminated between difficult and easy test conditions, which is in line with our previous findings. The latest was consistent in both age groups. Age-related differences regarding the WPSS could not be observed.