Behavioral adaptation to noise is independent of age and cognitive inhibitory control

Behavioral adaptation to noise helps mammals maintain perceptual acuity in challenging acoustic environments by dynamically adjusting to background sound, thereby enhancing speech recognition. Many older adults report difficulty understanding speech in noise despite having normal hearing. We investigated whether reduced adaptation contributes to these complaints and whether it relates to cognitive interference control. Eighty-nine participants aged 19–86 years with normal or near-normal hearing were tested. Cognitive inhibition was measured using the Stroop color and word test. Adaptation was defined as the improvement in speech reception thresholds for vocoded disyllabic words presented 800 ms versus 50 ms after the noise onset. Three noises were examined: single-talker babble, stationary speech-shaped noise, and speech-shaped noise with speech-like amplitude modulations. Significant adaptation was observed for all noises. However, adaptation magnitude was unrelated to age or Stroop performance, indicating that adaptation mechanisms remain stable across adulthood and are unlikely to explain age-related speech-in-noise difficulties.