The new location is Nelson Hall, Room 1215 (located on University Street across from Lyles-Porter). The seminar will begin at 12:00 noon.

Abstract:  Hearing loss is associated with increased fall risk in older adults, but multiple mechanisms have been proposed to account for this. Hearing loss may reduce spatial awareness and/or increase cognitive load, both of which may increase fall risk but may be ameliorated by hearing aid use. We are currently finishing a study study comparing fall incidence in daily life with postural sway measured under various listening conditions in older adults with and without hearing aids. An earlier version of this talk reported results from the first 17 participants (7 with hearing aids, 10 without). We have now completed enrollment and initial testing of 46 participants, each of whom stood with feet together and eyes closed, listening to noise vocoded speech (4, 8, 16 channels) and spatially distributed environmental sounds (silence, 1, 3 sources) for 1 minute per condition while postural sway was recorded in the lab. Participants subsequently reported daily near-falls and falls for 4 months (this phase will be completed in December). Initial results from the first 17 participants suggested that hearing aid users were more stable (or more rigid) than non-users and this pattern appears similar in the larger sample. Additional analyses will be presented as time permits.
 

This year’s SHRP schedule is available here: https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_schedule

Titles and abstracts of all SHRP talks are here: https://purdue.edu/TPAN/hearing/shrp_abstracts

*Please note new location and time.  There will not be a hybrid option this year.