Age affects how people go about with their life. Many activities that people take for granted become harder as a person ages. One of those areas affected is speech, and researchers have found that processing speech might become difficult as people get older.

The ability to process speech declines as the midbrain and cortex for older adults are affected by age, Science Daily reports. In the study, 32 native English-speaking volunteers who have normal hearing were selected. They were divided into two groups, with one comprised of younger adults and the other group as older adults.

The research then evaluated their speech comprehension by Quick Speech-In-Noise (QuickSIN) test. Also used in the study on the volunteers was an electroencephalogram, which measures midbrain activity, and magnetocephalogram, which measures cortical activity. The study evaluated the volunteers in both a quiet environment and in settings that have some noise.

The study has found out that the older group had more trouble in tracking speech than the younger group, as NeuroScience News says in its report. Accuracy of speech and other aspects were lower on the QuickSIN test for older people as well. The midbrain and cortex for older people have been affected, as the research result shows.

The research has shown that older people could not process speech not just because hearing loss has an impact, but that the brain has more difficulty in interpreting sound and speech signals. The study might be useful in finding out what could help older adults in processing speech.

The average age for the younger group is 2 years old, while the older group's average age is 65 years old. In the study, background noise was measured in four distinct signal-to-noise ratios, or SNR. This has been done in order to see if background noise might be a factor in processing speech.