Reading Comprehension in Quiet and in Noise: Effects on Immediate and Delayed Recall in Relation to Tinnitus and High-Frequency Hearing Thresholds

Abstract

Background:

A common complaint by people with tinnitus is that they experience that the tinnitus causes attention and concentration problems. Previous studies have examined how tinnitus influences cognitive performance on short and intensive cognitive tasks but without proper control of hearing status.

Purpose:

To examine the impact tinnitus and high-frequency hearing thresholds have on reading comprehension in quiet and in background noise.

Research Design:

A between-group design with matched control participants.

Study Sample:

One group of participants with tinnitus (n = 20) and an age and gender matched control group without tinnitus (n = 20) participated. Both groups had normal hearing thresholds (20 dB HL at frequencies 0.125 to 8 kHz).

Data Collection and Analysis:

Measurements were made assessing hearing thresholds and immediate and delayed recall using a reading comprehension test in quiet and in noise. All participants completed the Swedish version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and participants with tinnitus also completed the Tinnitus Questionnaire.

Results:

The groups did not differ in immediate nor delayed recall. Accounting for the effect of age, a significant positive correlation was found between best ear high-frequency pure tone average (HF-PTA; 10000, 12500, and 14000 Hz) and the difference score between immediate and delayed recall in noise.

Conclusions:

Tinnitus seems to have no effect on immediate and delayed recall in quiet or in background noise when hearing status is controlled for. The detrimental effect of background noise on the processes utilized for efficient encoding into long-term memory is larger in participants with better HF-PTA. More specifically, when reading in noise, participants with better HF-PTA seem to recall less information than participants with poorer HF-PTA.

Key Words

cognitive performance - high-frequency hearing - normal hearing - tinnitus

• REFERENCES

• Alloway TP, Alloway RG. 2010; Investigating the predictive roles of working memory and IQ in academic attainment. J Exp Child Psychol 106 (01) 20-29
• Andersson G, Baguley DM, McKenna L, McFerran DJ. 2005. Tinnitus: A Multidisciplinary Approach. London, United Kingdom: Whurr;
• Andersson G, Eriksson J, Lundh LG, Lyttkens L. 2000; Tinnitus and cognitive interference: a stroop paradigm study. J Speech Lang Hear Res 43 (05) 1168-1173
• Andersson G, Kaldo-Sandström V, Ström L, Strömgren T. 2003; Internet administration of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in a sample of tinnitus patients. J Psychosom Res 55 (03) 259-262
• Banbury SP, Berry DC. 2005; Office noise and employee concentration: identifying causes of disruption and potential improvements. Ergonomics 48 (01) 25-37
• Bishop DVM. 1997. Uncommon Understanding: Development and Disorders of Language Comprehension in Children. Hove, United Kingdom: Psychology Press;
• Bjelland I, Dahl AA, Haug TT, Neckelmann D. 2002; The validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. An updated literature review. J Psychosom Res 52 (02) 69-77
• Brown D. 2013. Inferno [CD]. Stockholm: Bonnier Audio;
• Cisler JM, Koster EH. 2010; Mechanisms of attentional biases towards threat in anxiety disorders: an integrative review. Clin Psychol Rev 30 (02) 203-216
• Conover WJ. 1999. Practical Nonparametric Statistics. New York, NY: Wiley;
• Dornhoffer J, Danner C, Mennemeier M, Blake D, Garcia-Rill E. 2006; Arousal and attention deficits in patients with tinnitus. Int Tinnitus J 12 (01) 9-16
• Hallam RS. 1996. Manual of the Tinnitus Questionnaire. London, United Kingdom: Psychological Corporation;
• Hallam RS, McKenna L, Shurlock L. 2004; Tinnitus impairs cognitive efficiency. Int J Audiol 43 (04) 218-226
• Herrmann C. 1997; International experiences with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale--a review of validation data and clinical results. J Psychosom Res 42 (01) 17-41
• Hiller W, Goebel G, Rief W. 1994; Reliability of self-rated tinnitus distress and association with psychological symptom patterns. Br J Clin Psychol 33 Pt 2 231-239
• Hjort M, Rosenfeldt H. 2013. Fjällgraven [CD]. Stockholm, Sweden: Nordsteds Audio;
• Hygge S, Boman E, Enmarker I. 2003; The effects of road traffic noise and meaningful irrelevant speech on different memory systems. Scand J Psychol 44 (01) 13-21
• Hägg G. 2008. Mussolini [CD]. Stockholm, Sweden: Nordstedts Audio;
• International Standards Organization (ISO). (1998) Acoustics: Audiometric test methods part 1: Basic pure tone air and bone conduction threshold audiometry (ISO 8253-1)
• International Standards Organization (ISO). (2000) Acoustics: Statistical distribution of hearing thresholds as a function of age (ISO 7029)
• International Standards Organization (ISO). (2004) Acoustics: Reference zero for the calibration of audiometric equipment. Part 8: Reference equivalent threshold sound pressure levels for pure tones and circumaural earphones (ISO 389-8)
• International Standards Organization (ISO). (2006) Acoustics: Reference zero for the calibration of audiometric equipment. Part 5: Reference equivalent threshold sound pressure levels for pure tones in the frequency range 8 kHz to 16 kHz (ISO 389-5)
• Jackson JG, Coyne IJ, Clough PJ. 2014; A preliminary investigation of potential cognitive performance decrements in non-help-seeking tinnitus sufferers. Int J Audiol 53 (02) 88-93
• Kim YS. 2016; Direct and mediated effects of language and cognitive skills on comprehension of oral narrative texts (listening comprehension) for children. J Exp Child Psychol 141: 101-120
• Kintsch W. 1988; The role of knowledge in discourse comprehension: a construction-integration model. Psychol Rev 95 (02) 163-182
• Leaver AM, Renier L, Chevillet MA, Morgan S, Kim HJ, Rauschecker JP. 2011; Dysregulation of limbic and auditory networks in tinnitus. Neuron 69 (01) 33-43
• Lin FR, Ferrucci L, Metter EJ, An Y, Zonderman AB, Resnick SM. 2011; Hearing loss and cognition in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Neuropsychology 25 (06) 763-770
• Lyxell B, Rönnberg J, Samuelsson S. 1994; Internal speech functioning and speechreading in deafened and normal hearing adults. Scand Audiol 23 (03) 179-185
• Melcher JR, Knudson IM, Levine RA. 2013; Subcallosal brain structure: correlation with hearing threshold at supra-clinical frequencies (>8 kHz), but not with tinnitus. Hear Res 295: 79-86
• Mühlau M, Rauschecker JP, Oestreicher E, Gaser C, Röttinger M, Wohlschläger AM, Simon F, Etgen T, Conrad B, Sander D. 2006; Structural brain changes in tinnitus. Cereb Cortex 16 (09) 1283-1288
• Peckham AD, McHugh RK, Otto MW. 2010; A meta-analysis of the magnitude of biased attention in depression. Depress Anxiety 27 (12) 1135-1142
• Rossiter S, Stevens C, Walker G. 2006; Tinnitus and its effect on working memory and attention. J Speech Lang Hear Res 49 (01) 150-160
• Rönnberg J. 2003; Cognition in the hearing impaired and deaf as a bridge between signal and dialogue: a framework and a model. Int J Audiol 42 (Suppl 1) S68-S76
• Rönnberg J, Lunner T, Zekveld A, Sörqvist P, Danielsson H, Lyxell B, Dahlström O, Signoret C, Stenfelt S, Pichora-Fuller MK, Rudner M. 2013; The Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model: theoretical, empirical, and clinical advances. Front Syst Neurosci 7: 31
• Rönnberg J, Rudner M, Foo C, Lunner T. 2008; Cognition counts: a working memory system for ease of language understanding (ELU). Int J Audiol 47 (Suppl 2) S99-S105
• Schlittmeier SJ, Hellbrück J, Thaden R, Vorländer M. 2008; The impact of background speech varying in intelligibility: effects on cognitive performance and perceived disturbance. Ergonomics 51 (05) 719-736
• Snow JB. 2004. Tinnitus: Theory and Managment. Hilton, USA: BC Decker Inc.;
• Stevens C, Walker G, Boyer M, Gallagher M. 2007; Severe tinnitus and its effect on selective and divided attention. Int J Audiol 46 (05) 208-216
• Sörqvist P, Ljungberg JK, Ljung R. 2010; A sub-process view of working memory capacity: evidence from effects of speech on prose memory. Memory 18 (03) 310-326
• Waechter S, Brännström KJ. 2015; The impact of tinnitus on cognitive performance in normal-hearing individuals. Int J Audiol 54 (11) 845-851
• Zigmond AS, Snaith RP. 1983; The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatr Scand 67 (06) 361-370