Break a sweat, hear more? Early results point to a surprising link between fitness and speech perception

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-early-results-link-speech-perception.html1

An ongoing study in Peelle's lab is asking whether the secret to navigating tricky listening environments might be as simple as regularly logging a few laps around the track.

If speech-in-noise tasks rely on executive function—and we know that physical activity helps it—then couldn't exercise also benefit speech perception? Peelle and Carey set out to find out.

Now in its first phase, their study is trying to establish a link between these concepts.

Volunteers run on a treadmill while wearing masks that track how much oxygen they consume during exercise. The method determines their VO2 max, a measure of cardiorespiratory fitness. They also complete a test asking them to repeat recorded sentences played against various levels of background noise.

So far, participants with higher fitness levels are performing about 15% better on speech-in-noise tasks than their less athletic counterparts, Peelle said.