Preprint · Jan 2026
Objective 2: Speech-in-Noise / Listening Effort - Sport, Sound And The Brain: Do Contact Sports Leave A Lasting Impact?
By Andrew JR, Thomas A, Plack CJ et al.
Difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments is a well-documented challenge for older adults, even those with clinically normal hearing thresholds. Age-related changes in auditory and cognitive processing reduce the ability to segregate and comprehend speech amid competing sounds, leading to increased listening effort and poorer behavioural performance on speech-in-noise tasks. Importantly, many contact sport athletes report similar auditory difficulties, including trouble understanding speech in quiet or noisy settings, following concussive or repetitive sub-concussive head impacts. These impairments likely reflect disruptions in central auditory processing pathways that may compound age-related declines. Therefore, older adults with a history of repeated head impacts through contact sports may experience amplified difficulties with speech perception and associated listening effort compared to individuals who have not been exposed to repetitive sub-concussive head impacts. This study aims to clarify these relationships by evaluating speech-in-noise performance and neural effort indices in older retired contact athletes and non-contact age- and fitness-matched controls.