Cognition and sentence comprehension in noise (Fitzhugh et al., 2021)

Purpose: Sentence comprehension deficits are common following a left hemisphere stroke and have primarily been investigated under optimal listening conditions. However, ample work in neurotypical controls indicates that background noise affects sentence comprehension and the cognitive resources it engages. The purpose of this study was to examine how background noise affects sentence comprehension poststroke using both energetic and informational maskers. We further sought to identify whether sentence comprehension in noise abilities are related to poststroke cognitive abilities, specifically working memory and/or attentional control.Method: Twenty persons with chronic left hemisphere stroke completed a sentence–picture matching task where they listened to sentences presented in three types of maskers: multispeakers, broadband noise, and silence (control condition). Working memory, attentional control, and hearing thresholds were also assessed.Results: A repeated-measures analysis of variance identified participants to have the greatest difficulty with the multispeakers condition, followed by broadband noise and then silence. Regression analyses, after controlling for age and hearing ability, identified working memory as a significant predictor of listening engagement (i.e., mean reaction time) in broadband noise and multispeakers and attentional control as a significant predictor of informational masking effects (computed as a reaction time difference score where broadband noise is subtracted from multispeakers).Conclusions: The results from this study indicate that background noise impacts sentence comprehension abilities poststroke and that these difficulties may arise due to deficits in the cognitive resources supporting sentence comprehension and not other factors such as age or hearing. These findings also highlight a relationship between working memory abilities and sentence comprehension in background noise. We further suggest that attentional control abilities contribute to sentence comprehension by supporting the additional demands associated with informational masking.Supplemental Material S1. Individual participant data.Supplemental Material S2. Multiple regression models predicting mean RT and RT difference scores for persons with aphasia only.Supplemental Material S3. Multiple regression models predicting mean RT and RT difference scores for participants with impaired and unimpaired working memory.Fitzhugh, M. C., LaCroix, A. N., & Rogalsky, C. (2021). Distinct contributions of working memory and attentional control to sentence comprehension in noise in persons with stroke. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00694

目的：左侧大脑半球卒中后，句子理解障碍十分常见，且主要在最佳听觉条件下进行研究。然而，大量针对神经典型对照组的研究表明，背景噪音会影响句子理解及其所涉及的认知资源。本研究旨在探讨背景噪音如何影响卒中后的句子理解，并使用能量掩蔽和信息掩蔽两种方法进行研究。此外，我们还试图确定句子在噪音中的理解能力是否与卒中后的认知能力相关，特别是工作记忆和/或注意力控制能力。方法：二十名慢性左侧大脑半球卒中患者完成了句子-图片匹配任务，在三种类型的掩蔽器下聆听句子：多说话者、宽带噪音和静音（控制条件）。同时评估了工作记忆、注意力控制和听力阈值。结果：重复测量的方差分析显示，参与者在多说话者条件下遇到的最大困难，其次是宽带噪音，然后是静音。在控制年龄和听力能力后，回归分析表明，工作记忆是宽带噪音和多说话者条件下聆听参与度（即平均反应时间）的显著预测因子，而注意力控制是信息掩蔽效果（计算为反应时间差分数，即宽带噪音减去多说话者）的显著预测因子。结论：本研究结果表明，背景噪音会影响卒中后的句子理解能力，这些困难可能源于支持句子理解认知资源的缺失，而非年龄或听力等其他因素。这些发现还突显了工作记忆能力与噪音中句子理解之间的关联。我们进一步建议，注意力控制能力通过支持与信息掩蔽相关的额外需求，对句子理解作出贡献。补充材料S1：个别参与者的数据。补充材料S2：仅针对失语症患者的预测平均反应时间和反应时间差分数的多元回归模型。补充材料S3：预测受损和未受损工作记忆参与者的平均反应时间和反应时间差分数的多元回归模型。Fitzhugh, M. C., LaCroix, A. N., & Rogalsky, C. (2021). 工作记忆和注意力控制对卒中患者噪音中句子理解的不同贡献。言语、语言和听力研究杂志。在线预发表。https://doi.org/10.1044/2021_JSLHR-20-00694