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Age effects in discrimination of intervals within rhythmic tone sequences
Peter J Fitzgibbons1, Sandra Gordon-Salant1
1Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|January 26, 2015
Summary
Older adults, with or without hearing loss, show reduced sensitivity to timing changes in auditory sequences compared to younger adults. Rhythmic patterns particularly impact older adults' temporal perception.
Area of Science:
- Auditory perception
- Psychoacoustics
- Human auditory system
Background:
- Temporal processing is crucial for understanding speech and music.
- Aging and hearing loss can impact auditory temporal resolution.
- Rhythmic patterns influence auditory perception.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate listener sensitivity to inter-onset interval (IOI) increments in auditory sequences.
- To compare temporal discrimination abilities across different age groups and hearing statuses.
- To examine the effect of rhythmic patterns on temporal sensitivity.
Main Methods:
- Listeners discriminated increments in target IOIs within tone sequences.
- Sequences featured isochronous or rhythmically grouped patterns.
- Participants included younger normal-hearing adults and older adults (with/without hearing loss).
Main Results:
- Older adults demonstrated significantly poorer temporal discrimination than younger adults.
- No significant difference in performance was found between older adults with and without hearing loss.
- Rhythmic grouping had a greater negative impact on temporal sensitivity in older listeners.
Conclusions:
- Aging negatively affects temporal sensitivity in auditory sequences, irrespective of hearing status.
- Rhythmic complexity exacerbates temporal processing deficits in older adults.
- These findings have implications for understanding age-related changes in auditory perception.
