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Age-related changes in attentional control during speech-in-competition comprehension: neurophysiological evidence

Poster Session B - Sunday, March 8, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Erick I. Correa-Medina^1,2 (), E. Sebastian Lelo de Larrea-Mancera³, Rodolfo Solís-Vivanco^1,2; ¹Laboratory of Cognitive and Clinical Neurophysiology, Instituto Nacional de Neurología y Neurocirugía, ²Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, ³Center for Cognitive and Brain Health, Northeastern University

Understanding speech in the presence of competing sounds in real-world settings is a daily challenge that engages attentional control to manage perceptual and cognitive demands and becomes increasingly difficult with aging. However, the neurophysiological correlates of speech-in-competition comprehension (SiC) and how they change across the aging process remain to be described. We examined the effects of perceptual and cognitive demands on SiC performance and neural activity in young (18–30 years; N = 25) and older adults (60–70 years; N = 25) with normal hearing and cognition. EEG was recorded during verbal comprehension tasks in which target speech was masked by competing voices that differed in gender, language, and spatial localization. Perceptual load was manipulated via the target-to-masker ratio, and cognitive load was increased through a concurrent working memory task performed during listening. SiC tasks led to decreased accuracy and longer RTs, with perceptual load exerting the strongest effect on performance and no differential impact of masker types. An interaction between perceptual and cognitive load in RTs indicated that the effect of cognitive load was moderated by perceptual demands, such that cognitive load increased RTs only under low perceptual load. SiC induced a selectively increase in alpha-band power, with the strongest effects observed over frontal and posterior regions. This increase was evident only when both perceptual and cognitive loads were simultaneously high. Our findings demonstrate that perceptual load constrains the expression of cognitive control during SiC, and that alpha oscillations support adaptive attentional regulation when auditory processing demands exceed available resources.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Auditory