Cortisol, Chromogranin A, and Pupillary Responses Evoked by Speech Recognition Tasks in Normally Hearing and Hard-of-Hearing Listeners: A Pilot Study

Kramer, Sophia E.; Teunissen, Charlotte E.; Zekveld, Adriana A. · 2016 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000000311

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Summary

This pilot study investigated whether speech recognition tasks evoke concurrent activation of the sympathetic nervous system, as indexed by salivary cortisol and chromogranin A (CgA), and whether these physiological responses differ between normally hearing (NH) and hard-of-hearing (HH) adults. The research was motivated by the known increased listening effort for HH individuals, particularly in noise, and the lack of empirical evidence linking hearing-related stressors to acute stress biomarkers like cortisol and CgA alongside pupillometric measures of cognitive load. The study included 10 NH and 10 HH adults (mean age ~52 years). Participants underwent two speech perception tests in random order: a test in quiet targeting 100% correct performance and an adaptive speech-in-noise test targeting 50% correct performance. Physiological data were collected via pupillometry (measuring peak pupil dilation) and saliva sampling for cortisol and CgA analysis at four time points: pre-test, after each speech test, and post-test. Participants also provided self-ratings of effort, accuracy, and motivation. Statistical analyses included repeated-measures ANOVAs and Spearman’s correlations, with a liberal alpha level of 0.10 due to the small sample size. Results indicated that the three physiological indicators were not equally affected by the tasks or hearing status. HH listeners exhibited significantly smaller peak pupil dilations than NH listeners specifically in the speech-in-noise condition, suggesting a difference in cognitive load processing or sympathetic activation under difficult listening conditions. No significant group or condition effects were found for cortisol levels, although HH listeners tended to have higher cortisol levels across conditions. CgA levels were significantly higher at the pre-test time point compared to subsequent measurements, but hearing impairment did not affect CgA levels. Self-reported motivation correlated most frequently with cortisol or pupil dilation values. The findings suggest that pupil dilation, cortisol, and CgA capture different dimensions of sympathetic nervous system activity and are not uniformly responsive to speech testing or hearing impairment. While pupillometry showed sensitivity to hearing status in noisy conditions, cortisol and CgA did not demonstrate significant group differences in this acute setting. The authors conclude that these biomarkers may reflect distinct aspects of stress and cognitive load, warranting further investigation with larger sample sizes to determine their utility as outcome measures for hearing-related stress.

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• workload measurement

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• Empirical Findings: physiological data