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Auditory training

Auditory training has been studied in 12 papers since 2016: 9 trials in people, 3 reviews. The newest paper, Sep 8, 2025: “Auditory Training for Everyday Functioning in Later Life”.

Intervention

12 papers study it20 findingsUpdated

See all 12

“There was a significant training group × session interaction (F(1, 69) = 5.48, P = 0.005, η2 = 0.15), which was driven by the larger decrease in DL from post- to pre-test sessions in the experimental compared to the active control group (T(73) = 2.96, P = 0.004).”
Rate Discrimination Training May Partially Restore Temporal Processing Abilities from Age-Related DeficitsJournal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology : JARO2022doi:10.1007/s10162-022-00859-x

2 of its findings point the other way.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

  • 9 independent labs in 5 countries
  • 2 findings against
  • Funders: National Institute on Aging and others
  • Human trial9

Studies in people

See all 8

8 studies gave auditory training to people and measured what changed.

What did studies of Auditory training find?

18

Studies of Auditory training measured 18 outcomes; the most studied are cognitive function (2 studies), speech recognition (2) and attention (1).

Cognitive function

upin humans1no changein humans1

2 studies

  1. Auditory training improves cognitive function in humans (g = 0.79, 95% CI: 0.57, 1.01).

    “The overall effect of auditory training on overall cognition and executive function in ARHL is statistically significant (overall cognition: g = 0.79, 95 percent confidence interval [CI]: 0.57, 1.01”

    Reviewage-related hearing lossn = 443

    Effects of Auditory Training on Cognition in Hearing Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-analyses

    Journal of the American Academy of Audiology

  2. Auditory training has no effect on cognitive function in humans.

    “That is, the LACE training did not benefit short-term memory and attention.”

    Human trialnon-hearing-aid usersn = 20

    Effects of Auditory Training in Older Adults

    Journal of speech, language, and hearing research : JSLHR

Speech recognition

upin humans1no changein humans1

2 studies

  1. Auditory training improves speech recognition in humans (p = 0.004).

    “and regarding the improving score of matrix test (p = 0.004), there was no difference in the control group.”

    Human trialelderly hearing aid users8 weeksn = 33

    Evaluating the Effectiveness of a New Auditory Training Program on the Speech Recognition Skills and Auditory Event-Related Potentials in Elderly Hearing Aid Users

    Audiology & neuro-otology

  2. Auditory training has no effect on speech recognition in humans.

    “the training protocol failed to elicit post-test improvements for recognition of Spanish-accented speech”

    Human trialpost-test vs pre-test

    Younger and older adults show non-linear, stimulus-dependent performance during early stages of auditory training for non-native English

    The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

Attention

upin humans1

1 study

  1. Auditory training improves attention in humans.

    “By performing auditory exercises, participants demonstrated improved attention, relaxation, and overall mental clarity.”

    Human trial

    Neurofeedback and Aging: Exploring new strategies for Enhancing Cognitive and Emotional Well-being for Older People

    Preprints.orgPreprint

Tone discrimination

upin humans1

1 study

  1. Auditory training improves tone discrimination in humans.

    “While older adults improved in tone discrimination, no group differences emerged.”

    Human trialn = 64

    Aging and Distributional Tone Learning: The Role of Pitch Memory in Older Adults’ Discrimination of Mandarin Lexical Tones

    Preprint

Attention/processing speed

no changein humans1

1 study

  1. Auditory training has no effect on attention/processing speed in humans (g = 1.47, 95% CI: -0.48, 3.42).

    “The effect of auditory training on attention/processing speed and working memory is small and not significant (attention/processing speed: g = 1.47, 95 percent CI: -0.48, 3.42”

    Reviewage-related hearing lossn = 443

    Effects of Auditory Training on Cognition in Hearing Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-analyses

    Journal of the American Academy of Audiology

Executive function

upin humans1

1 study

  1. Auditory training improves executive function in humans (g = 3.84, 95% CI: 1.49, 6.19).

    “executive function: g = 3.84, 95 percent CI: 1.49, 6.19”

    Reviewage-related hearing lossn = 443

    Effects of Auditory Training on Cognition in Hearing Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-analyses

    Journal of the American Academy of Audiology

Cross-modal functional connectivity

downin humans1

1 study

  1. Auditory training decreases cross-modal functional connectivity in humans.

    “Therefore, the results show that brain connectivity between auditory cortices (especially the left auditory cortex) and higher-level non-auditory regions in response to the visual stimuli were significantly decreased immediately after training, but then such decreases vanished after retention.”

    Human trialin response to visual stimuli immediately after training4 weeksn = 10

    Neuroplasticity of Speech-in-Noise Processing in Older Adults Assessed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

    Brain topography

Functional connectivity

upin humans1

1 study

  1. Auditory training increases functional connectivity in humans.

    “For the functional connectivity, we found significant enhancements of connectivity for both speech and non-speech at T1 and T2 compared to T0 (as well as several decreases, see Fig. B).”

    Human trialin response to auditory stimuli, dominant in the speech condition after retention4 weeksn = 10

    Neuroplasticity of Speech-in-Noise Processing in Older Adults Assessed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

    Brain topography

Prefrontal cortex activation

downin humans1

1 study

  1. Auditory training decreases prefrontal cortex activation in humans.

    “In the left frontal/prefrontal cortex, responses amplitudes were significantly reduced at post-training than baseline (T1 vs. T0 and T2 vs. T0) in the left frontal/prefrontal cortex for the speech but not the non-speech condition.”

    Human trialin the left frontal/prefrontal cortex for the speech condition4 weeksn = 10

    Neuroplasticity of Speech-in-Noise Processing in Older Adults Assessed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

    Brain topography

Speech-in-noise performance

upin humans1

1 study

  1. Auditory training improves speech-in-noise performance in humans.

    “We found significantly lower SRT (i.e., better speech-in-noise performance) at T2 than at T0, but no significant differences between T1 and T0 or between T2 and T1.”

    Human trialafter retention4 weeksn = 10

    Neuroplasticity of Speech-in-Noise Processing in Older Adults Assessed by Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

    Brain topography

All 18

Funding

1 grant since 2022

National Institute on AgingUS$753.1k

Latest

See all 12

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