Objective Assessment of Training Efficacy

Question 1

What are the three principles of auditory training?

Answer 1

1) Experience changes in the brain
2) Generalization
3) Time course of learning

Question 2

How have changes in the brain resulting from auditory training been studied?.

Answer 2

-EX: tested a rabbit’s neural response to a tone and then paired the tone with carrot presentations. After conditioning, see increase in neural spiking to the tone

Question 3

Describe changes in the brainstem following auditory training.

Answer 3

• Behavioral improvements (word identification) reflected in brainstem enhancements (more accurate pitch tracking)
• EX: young adults used LACE auditory training program for 4 weeks to examine improvements in neural encoding and SIN performance
• Short term effects of training: increased FFR amplitude in N but not Q and improved QuickSIN SNR loss
• No change in the test-retest brainstem responses recorded in control subjects in Q or N
• Training causes neuroplastic changes in lower-level sensory areas, consistent with animal models

Question 4

Describe brainstem response to training.

Answer 4

• Brainstem response is stable
• Brainstem response is dynamic (training leas to enhancements in SIN perception and brainstem processing of F0 and H2)
• Neural correlates of perceptual learning in the auditory brainstem

Question 5

Describe generalization of auditory training effects.

Answer 5

• Training on one stimulus generalizes to other, untrained stimulus
• Cortical response reflects transfer
• Responses of the trained group were longer in duration and had greater area for both trained and transfer stimuli

Question 6

Describe time course of learning of auditory training effects.

Answer 6

• Does neurophysiologic change precede behavioral learning?
• 10 day training protocol (Tremblay et al. 1998)
• Consonant identification, neural (MMN) and behavioral
• Changes in neurophysiology occur before changes in behavioral learning

Question 7

Describe the summary of auditory training principles.

Answer 7

• Learning happens quickly ~1 week
• Learning generalizes to stimuli and not used in training
• Pre-attentive stimulus encoding is plastic
• Neural changes can precede behavioral learning
• Experience alters fundamental encoding of sensory events

Question 8

Describe auditory training in children with learning impairments.

Answer 8

• Training game: Earobics, computer-based training program
• Auditory memory and sequencing, rhyming, phoneme discrimination, etc.
• Brainstem encoding in noise more resilient after 8 weeks of training
• Cortical responses in noise improve after training for children with abnormal cortical responses

Question 9

Describe auditory training in older adults: evidence from animal models.

Answer 9

• Young vs. old owls should that auditory map plasticity is age-dependent
• One study found no shift in response following training for older owls
• Another study showed that even older owls can undergo plasticity if done gradually

Question 10

Describe the short-term training offset effects of aging on neural timing.

Answer 10

• Increased neural firing indicated improvement in temporal coding
• Average improvements in latency timing is ~-.5ms for auditory training group
• Training reduces effects of noise (better SNR)
• Training leads to improved SIN perception, short-term memory, and processing speed

Question 11

How long do training effects last?

Answer 11

• Gains in processing speed persist for 6 months

- Robust training-induced changes in memory and speech-in-noise perception did not persist for 6 months

Question 12

Describe the role of sleep in training effects.

Answer 12

• Sleep decrease response time in vowel identification task

- Sleep increases training effects on P2 amplitude

Question 13

Describe DDTT.

Answer 13

• Results: perceptual improvement
• 50% crossover in identification function occurs with smaller durations
• Equivalent improvement in both groups
• Neural response improvement in ONH following training (more robust PLF)
• No neural response changes in YNH

Question 14

Describe music training.

Answer 14

• Enhances neural encoding of sound (increased cABR amplitude to speech in Q and N)
• Music training offsets age-related delays in temporal processing
• Do effects of musical training last into older adulthood? Effects persist throughout the lifespan
• New training study that engaged sensorimotor feedback (closed loop) and reward systems to consider musical training in older adults
• Closed loop training improves sentence recognition in noise and digital recall

Question 15

What are the ingredients for effective learning?

Answer 15

-OPERA hypothesis
O= Overlap in the auditory system anatomy for speech and music
P= Precision required for music processing is greater than speech
E= Emotion elicited in performing music well induces plsticity
R= Repetition, extensive practice tunes system
A= Attention, focusing on details of sound