The Audiovisual Mismatch Negativity in Predictive and Non-Predictive Speech Stimuli in Older Adults With and Without Hearing Loss.

Adults with aging-related hearing loss (ARHL) experience adaptive neural changes to optimize their sensory experiences; for example, enhanced audiovisual (AV) and predictive processing during speech perception. The mismatch negativity (MMN) event-related potential is an index of central auditory processing; however, it has not been explored as an index of AV and predictive processing in adults with ARHL. In a pilot study we examined the AV MMN in two conditions of a passive oddball paradigm - one AV condition in which the visual aspect of the stimulus can predict the auditory percept and one AV control condition in which the visual aspect of the stimulus cannot predict the auditory percept.