Caitlin Nelms Price

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences | UAMS · Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology

Previous studies reveal individuals with hearing loss are more likely to experience falls and fall-related injury. Fall risk exponentially increases with more severe degrees of hearing loss. Because both the risk of falls and the incidence of hearing loss increase with age, investigating the efficacy of balance intervention programs in older adults...

Experimental evidence in animals demonstrates cortical neurons innervate subcortex bilaterally to tune brainstem auditory coding. Yet, the role of the descending (corticofugal) auditory system in modulating earlier sound processing in humans during speech perception remains unclear. Here, we measured EEG activity as listeners performed speech ident...

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) commonly results in more rapid cognitive and behavioral declines than typical aging. Individuals with MCI can exhibit impaired receptive speech abilities that may reflect neurophysiological changes in auditory‐sensory processing prior to usual cognitive deficits. Benefits from current interventions targeting communic...

Experimental evidence in animals demonstrates cortical neurons innervate subcortex bilaterally to tune brainstem auditory coding. Yet, the role of the descending (corticofugal) auditory system in modulating earlier sound processing in humans during speech perception remains unclear. Here, we measured EEG activity as listeners performed speech ident...

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) commonly impacts older adults resulting in more rapid cognitive and behavioral declines than typical aging. Individuals with MCI can exhibit impaired receptive speech abilities that may reflect neurophysiological changes in auditory-sensory processing prior to usual cognitive deficits. Benefits from current intervent...

Communication in noise is a complex process requiring efficient neural encoding throughout the entire auditory pathway as well as contributions from higher-order cognitive processes (i.e., attention) to extract speech cues for perception. Thus, identifying effective clinical interventions for individuals with speech-in-noise deficits relies on the...

Perceiving speech-in-noise (SIN) demands precise neural coding between brainstem and cortical levels of the hearing system. Attentional processes can then select and prioritize task-relevant cues over competing background noise for successful speech perception. In animal models, brainstem-cortical interplay is achieved via descending corticofugal p...

Perceiving speech-in-noise (SIN) demands precise neural coding between brainstem and cortical levels of the hearing system. Attentional processes can then select and prioritize task-relevant cues over competing background noise for successful speech perception. In animal models, brainstem-cortical interplay is achieved via descending corticofugal p...

Difficulty understanding speech-in-noise (SIN) is a pervasive problem faced by older adults particularly those with hearing loss. Previous studies have identified structural and functional changes in the brain that contribute to older adults' speech perception difficulties. Yet, many of these studies use neuroimaging techniques that evaluate only g...

Speech-in-noise (SIN) comprehension deficits in older adults have been linked to changes in both subcortical and cortical auditory evoked responses. However, older adults' difficulty understanding SIN may also be related to an imbalance in signal transmission (i.e., functional connectivity) between brainstem and auditory cortices. By modeling high-...

Objectives: In noisy environments, listeners benefit from both hearing and seeing a talker, demonstrating audiovisual (AV) cues enhance speech-in-noise (SIN) recognition. Here, we examined the relative contribution of auditory and visual cues to SIN perception and the strategies used by listeners to decipher speech in noise interference(s). Desig...

Age-related hearing loss leads to poorer speech comprehension, particularly in noise. Speech-in-noise (SIN) deficits among the elderly could result from weaker neural activity within, or poorer signal transmission between brainstem and auditory cortices. By recording neuroelectric responses from brainstem (BS) and primary auditory cortex (PAC), we...

The mammalian cochlea functions as a filter bank that performs a spectral, Fourier-like decomposition on the acoustic signal. While tuning can be compromised (e.g., broadened with hearing impairment), whether or not human cochlear frequency resolution can be sharpened through experiential factors (e.g., training or learning) has not yet been establ...