衰老和听力损失中记忆引导听觉注意的证据

文献信息

中文摘要

既往研究已将年龄相关性听力损失（ARHL）与认知衰退联系起来，但受影响的特定认知过程仍不清楚。感觉剥夺和认知负荷假说认为，ARHL使听觉加工在认知上更费力，从而消耗整体认知资源并降低长期记忆的有效利用。记忆和注意在听觉感知中发挥作用，使听者能够将复杂声音组织成有意义的客体，从而促进聆听和行为。长期记忆的功能之一是引导注意，而听觉记忆引导的注意涉及海马网络，这些网络已知在年龄相关认知衰退和听力损失中易受损。考察听觉注意与记忆之间的相互作用可能有助于阐明ARHL与认知衰退之间的关联。我们检验了预先注册的假设，即ARHL较重的老年人使用记忆引导听觉注意的能力较弱。62名年龄40-80岁的成年人参加了一项记忆引导注意任务，在该任务中他们学习将背景声音与探测音目标的空间位置相关联。与预测相反，结果表明该年龄组的记忆引导注意得以保留，且这种能力与听力阈值不相关。然而，ARHL较重者用言语识别背景声音的准确性更差，提示识别声景存在困难。结果表明，在本研究条件下，轻至中度听力损失对中老年人形成听觉目标-情境关联的长期记忆能力影响很小。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2026 APA，保留所有权利）。

英文摘要

Previous studies have linked age-related hearing loss (ARHL) to cognitive decline, but the specific cognitive processes affected remain unclear. The sensory deprivation and cognitive load hypotheses suggest that ARHL makes auditory processing more cognitively demanding, straining overall cognitive resources and reducing the effective use of long-term memory. Memory and attention play a role in auditory perception, enabling listeners to organize complex sounds into meaningful objects that facilitate listening and behavior. One function of long-term memory is to guide attention, and auditory memory-guided attention engages hippocampal networks that are known to be vulnerable in age-related cognitive decline and hearing loss. Examining the interaction between auditory attention and memory may clarify the associations between ARHL and cognitive decline. We tested the preregistered hypothesis that older adults with greater ARHL would show weaker ability to use memory-guided auditory attention. Sixty-two adults aged 40-80 years participated in a memory-guided attention task in which they learned to associate background sounds with the spatial location of a probe-tone target. Contrary to predictions, results suggest preserved memory-guided attention in this age group, and this ability did not correlate with hearing thresholds. However, accuracy in verbally identifying background sounds was worse in those with greater ARHL, suggesting difficulty with recognizing acoustic scenes. Results indicate that mild-to-moderate hearing loss has little impact on middle-aged and older adults' ability to form long-term memory for auditory target-context associations under the conditions of this study. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).