Research summary
Hearing impairments are common in older adults, and negatively affect their ability to listen and connect with those around them. But why do some people continue to engage despite hearing challenges while others withdraw socially? Although our understanding of age-related changes in auditory physiology is increasing, current measures fail to predict listeners’ real-life experiences, such as trying to have a conversation in a noisy restaurant environment.
As Canada Research Chair in Auditory Aging, Bjorn Herrmann aims to shed light on this area. By measuring brain activity and listening experiences in both laboratory-based and real-world situations, he and his research team hope to predict when a person with a hearing impairment will disengage. They will also integrate brain- and experience-based metrics to develop valid outcome measures of hearing loss and intervention efficacy.