Why Do Some Struggle to Hear in Noise?
November 18, 2025
-
3 min
A recent study published in PLOS One reveals that individuals with lower intellectual abilities struggle to identify a single speaker in noisy environments, even with normal hearing. The researchers found a significant negative relationship between cognitive scores and the ability to isolate a target talker amid competing voices. This trend was evident across participants with autism and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, highlighting general intellectual ability as a key factor influencing auditory perception in challenging acoustic settings. The study involved 49 participants, all screened for typical hearing, and utilized a tailored multitalker speech perception task to analyze performance.
1. Study focused on speech perception in noisy environments. 2. Participants included individuals with autism and FASD. 3. Lower IQ scores correlated with poorer speech perception ability. 4. Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence used for cognitive assessment. 5. Participants required favorable conditions for accurate speech identification. 6. Study showed limitations due to small sample sizes. 7. No competing interests reported by researchers.
Listen Tab content
