DOI: 10.5061/dryad.kprr4xhft
title: Examining relationship between auditory brainstem responses, cognitive ability, and speech-in-noise perception among young adults with normal hearing thresholds

description: The goal of this research was to determine the contributions of auditory
 neural processing and cognitive abilities to predict performance on a
 competing talker task in young, normal hearing adults. Two experiments
 were performed, each with separate cohorts of ~30 young adults with normal
 hearing who performed a competing talker task which included a high-pass
 filtered condition that was designed to be more sensitive to auditory
 nerve functioning than are commonly used speech-in-noise perception tests.
 Predictors of performance on this speech-in-speech task included ABR waves
 I and V metrics and cognitive test scores. Experiment one included click
 ABRs at a moderate level commensurate with the level of the competing
 talker task, as well as the cognitive digit span working memory test.
 Experiment two included high-intensity click clinical ABRs and three
 cognitive tests from the NIH Toolbox V3 that assessed working memory,
 cognitive flexibility and attention, and inhibitory control: List Sorting
 Working Memory, Dimensional Change Card Sort, and Flanker Inhibitory
 Control and Attention tests, respectively. Performance on the high-pass
 competing talker task varied across participants in both experiments. This
 variability was predicted by performance on the test of inhibitory
 control, but not the tests involving working memory or cognitive
 flexibility, nor by any of the auditory processing metrics from moderate
 or high-intensity click ABRs. Among two groups of young adults with normal
 hearing, cognitive factors with very similar demands to the competing
 talker task seem to play the greatest role in speech-in-noise perception.
description: Across two experiments, participants performed a competing talker
 task, in which they attended to a target talker and ignored a competing
 talker, and tests of cognitive ability. Auditory brainstem responses
 (ABRs) were also recorded. From Experiment 1, the dataset contains percent
 correct on the competing talker task for both the "Control" and
 "High Pass" conditions, percent correct on forward and backward
 digit span, the average digit span percent correct, ABR waves I and V
 amplitudes and latencies, the ABR wave I:V ratio, and the ABR latency
 difference between wave I and wave V for each participant. From Experiment
 2, the dataset contains percent correct on the competing talker task for
 the "High Pass" condition, normalized scores from the NIH
 Cognitive Toolbox tests List Sorting Working Memory, Dimensional Change
 Card Sort, and Flanker Inhibitory Control and Attention, ABR waves I and V
 amplitudes and latencies, the ABR wave I:V ratio, and the ABR latency
 difference between wave I and wave V for each participant. 
 To calculate the ABR metrics, experimenters viewed each
 participant's wave traces to pick the peaks for waves I and V. The
 amplitude and latency of each participant's wave I and wave V were
 calculated based on this peak-picking.
description: # Examining the relationship between auditory brainstem responses,
 cognitive ability, and speech-in-noise perception among young adults with
 normal hearing thresholds
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kprr4xhft](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.kprr4xhft) ## Description of the data and file structure Across two experiments, this study examined the relationship between auditory brainstem responses, cognitive ability, and speech-in-noise perception scores among young adults with normal hearing thresholds.  ### Files and variables #### File: Experiment1Data.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables * ParticipantID: The anonymized identification number of the participant * Control: Percent correct scores from the Control condition of the competing talker task * HighPass: Percent correct scores from the High Pass condition of the competing talker task * ForwardDigitPct: Percent correct scores from the Forward condition of the digit span task * BackwardDigitPct: Percent correct scores from the Backward condition of the digit span task * CompositeDigitSpanPct: Average percent correct scores from the Forward and Backward conditions of the digit span task * WaveIAmplitude: Amplitude of auditory brainstem response wave I, in microvolts * WaveVAmplitude: Amplitude of auditory brainstem response wave V, in microvolts * WaveI:Vratio: Ratio of auditory brainstem response wave I and V amplitude  * WaveILatency: Latency of auditory brainstem response wave I, in milliseconds * WaveVLatency: Latency of auditory brainstem response wave V, in milliseconds * WaveIVLatencyDiff: Difference in latency between auditory brainstem response wave V and wave I #### File: Experiment2Data.csv **Description:**  ##### Variables * ParticipantID: The anonymized identification number of the participant * HighPass:  Percent correct scores from the High Pass condition of the competing talker task, the only condition presented in Experiment 2 * DCCS: Normalized scores for the NIH Cognitive Toolbox Dimensional Change Card Sort test * Flanker: Normalized scores for the NIH Cognitive Toolbox Flanker Inhibitory Control and Attention test * LSWM: Normalized scores for the NIH Cognitive Toolbox List Sorting Working Memory test * WaveIAmplitude: Amplitude of auditory brainstem response wave I, in microvolts * WaveVAmplitude: Amplitude of auditory brainstem response wave V, in microvolts * WaveI:Vratio: Ratio of auditory brainstem response wave I and V amplitude  * WaveILatency: Latency of auditory brainstem response wave I, in milliseconds * WaveVLatency: Latency of auditory brainstem response wave V, in milliseconds * WaveIVLatencyDiff: Difference in latency between auditory brainstem response wave V and wave I ## Code/software Microsoft Office ## Access information NA