Tablet PC use directly affects children's perception and attention.

Children currently grow up with a marked increase in interactive digital mobile media. To what extent digital media directly modulate children's perception and attention is largely unknown. We investigated the processing of task-irrelevant auditory information while 37 children aged 6;8-9;1-years played the identical card game on a tablet PC or with the experimenter in reality. The sound sequence included repeated standard sounds and occasionally novel sounds. Event-related potentials in the EEG, that reflect sound-related processes of perception and attention, were measured. Sounds evoked increased amplitudes of the ERP components P1, P2 and P3a during the interaction with the tablet PC compared to the human interaction. This indicates enhanced early processing of task-irrelevant information and increased allocation of attention to sounds throughout the interaction with a tablet PC compared to a human partner. Results suggest direct effects of typical situations, where children interact with a tablet PC, on neuronal mechanisms that drive perception and attention in the developing brain. More research into this phenomena is required to make specific suggestions for developing digital interactive learning programs.

Temporal Sensitivity Measured Shortly After Cochlear Implantation Predicts 6-Month Speech Recognition Outcome.

OBJECTIVES: Psychoacoustic tests assessed shortly after cochlear implantation are useful predictors of the rehabilitative speech outcome. While largely independent, both spectral and temporal resolution tests are important to provide an accurate prediction of speech recognition. However, rapid tests of temporal sensitivity are currently lacking. Here, we propose a simple amplitude modulation rate discrimination (AMRD) paradigm that is validated by predicting future speech recognition in adult cochlear implant (CI) patients. DESIGN: In 34 newly implanted patients, we used an adaptive AMRD paradigm, where broadband noise was modulated at the speech-relevant rate of ~4 Hz. In a longitudinal study, speech recognition in quiet was assessed using the closed-set Freiburger number test shortly after cochlear implantation (t0) as well as the open-set Freiburger monosyllabic word test 6 months later (t6). RESULTS: Both AMRD thresholds at t0 (r = -0.51) and speech recognition scores at t0 (r = 0.56) predicted speech recognition scores at t6. However, AMRD and speech recognition at t0 were uncorrelated, suggesting that those measures capture partially distinct perceptual abilities. A multiple regression model predicting 6-month speech recognition outcome with deafness duration and speech recognition at t0 improved from adjusted R = 0.30 to adjusted R = 0.44 when AMRD threshold was added as a predictor. CONCLUSIONS: These findings identify AMRD thresholds as a reliable, nonredundant predictor above and beyond established speech tests for CI outcome. This AMRD test could potentially be developed into a rapid clinical temporal-resolution test to be integrated into the postoperative test battery to improve the reliability of speech outcome prognosis.

Aging affects the balance of neural entrainment and top-down neural modulation in the listening brain.

Healthy aging is accompanied by listening difficulties, including decreased speech comprehension, that stem from an ill-understood combination of sensory and cognitive changes. Here, we use electroencephalography to demonstrate that auditory neural oscillations of older adults entrain less firmly and less flexibly to speech-paced (∼3 Hz) rhythms than younger adults' during attentive listening. These neural entrainment effects are distinct in magnitude and origin from the neural response to sound per se. Non-entrained parieto-occipital alpha (8-12 Hz) oscillations are enhanced in young adults, but suppressed in older participants, during attentive listening. Entrained neural phase and task-induced alpha amplitude exert opposite, complementary effects on listening performance: higher alpha amplitude is associated with reduced entrainment-driven behavioural performance modulation. Thus, alpha amplitude as a task-driven, neuro-modulatory signal can counteract the behavioural corollaries of neural entrainment. Balancing these two neural strategies may present new paths for intervention in age-related listening difficulties.