As we age, the first hair cells to die typically are those most sensitive to high-frequency sounds, making it tougher to hear consonants such as f, s, t, and p, which give speech its clarity. That’s why it becomes more difficult to pick out conversations in noisy rooms.

Samira Anderson, a researcher at Northwestern University, is finding that specific listening exercises can help aging ears hear a bit more clearly.

Anderson, 53, spent years as an audiologist fitting people for hearing aids, and the most common lament from older patients involved their frustrations when trying to hear conversations in crowded rooms, and their tendency to stop going out because of it.

“I don’t want to just tell people, ‘This is what happens when you get old and hearing aids may help, but not much,’ ’’ Anderson said. “I want to be able to offer them some kind of solution.’’

Scientists believe that hearing is a complex interplay between the ear and the brain, and that as we age, we not only lose critical inner ear cells, but our brain slows in its ability to process sounds.

Anderson has found that older adults with normal to moderate hearing loss who undergo intensive training with a computer program that focuses on discriminating among similar sounds in words improved their ability to detect words against background noise.

In one study, a group of adults, aged 58 to 65, listened to the program one hour a day, five days a week for eight weeks. Another group watched and listened to educational videos for the same time periods, but did not undergo the training.

About 80 percent of the adults who completed the training were able to hear the words against background noise that was one full level louder than previously, Anderson said - the equivalent of going from a typical office to a cafeteria. The other group did not show improvement.