Presbyacusis, or age-related hearing loss, is a public health problem, affecting 20% of men and 30% of women over the age of 70 according to the WHO. In the most incapacitating cases, hearing aids are required. Numerous studies have evaluated the benefits of hearing aids, particularly in terms of improved hearing and quality of life.
However, the specific effect of music on language skills has not yet been studied in hearing-impaired older adults.
In this context, it was decided to study the effect of musical priming on the syntactic abilities of adults aged 70 or older with presbyacusis.
This study is based on the hypothesis that music priming with regular music optimizes the syntax language skills of people with presbyacusis, as has already been proven in adults and normal-hearing children.
No objection to participation in the study
Men and women aged ≥ 70 years
Patients diagnosed with presbyacusis (age-related bilateral and symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss, all stages combined), with or without the use of a bilateral hearing aid.
If they use a hearing aid: hearing must have an average free-field fitted tonal threshold of 40 dB max and free-field fitted speech discrimination without lip-reading of 90-100% at 60dB in silence.
Person under legal protection (curatorship, guardianship)
Person under court order
Adult unable to provide consent
Person with a neurocognitive disorder (post-stroke, dyslexia, dyspraxia) or neuro-psychiatric disorder (dementia, autism)
Single group
Audiogram
Other interventionTonal and vocal free-field without lip-reading
Musical priming for the syntax test
Other interventionListening to music with a regular or irregular rhythm, then judging the grammaticality of 2x6 blocks of French sentences interrupted by a pause, each block presenting 4 sentences including 2 grammatically correct sentences and 2 grammatically incorrect sentences. The sentences are pronounced by a French female voice at a natural rhythm and comfortable volume.
Test MMSE
Other interventiontest to assess a person's cognitive functions and memory capacity.
Barcelona Music Reward Questionnaire
Other intervention20 questions exploring 5 main facets of the musical reward experience, with 4 items for each of the 5 facets, for which participants indicate the level of agreement using a 5-level scale, ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree".
linguistic performance test focusing on syntax.
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