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Published on: January 23, 2017
Auditory duration discrimination in young and elderly listeners with normal hearing
S L Phillips1, S Gordon-Salant, P J Fitzgibbons
1Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park 20742.
Journal of the American Academy of Audiology
|May 1, 1994
Summary
Elderly individuals show prolonged auditory processing times, particularly when distinguishing sound durations with backward interference. This age-related auditory processing delay affects temporal perception.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Psychoacoustics
- Human Aging Research
Background:
- Auditory temporal processing is crucial for understanding speech and environmental sounds.
- Age-related changes in auditory perception are well-documented, but specific impacts on temporal processing require further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of aging on auditory duration discrimination.
- To examine age-related differences in backward interference of auditory duration discrimination.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted with young and elderly listeners with normal hearing.
- Experiment I assessed the just-noticeable difference (JND) in tone duration using a three-interval forced-choice task.
- Experiment II evaluated duration discrimination with a tonal masker at varying delay times (80, 240, 720 ms).
Main Results:
- No significant age effects were found for basic duration discrimination (Experiment I).
- Elderly listeners exhibited significantly poorer performance on duration discrimination tasks when backward interference was present (Experiment II).
- The magnitude of age effects increased with shorter masker delay times.
Conclusions:
- Age-related deficits in auditory temporal processing are evident, specifically in tasks involving backward interference.
- The time required for elderly individuals to process the duration of acoustic stimuli is extended, especially under challenging listening conditions.
- These findings have implications for understanding age-related hearing difficulties and developing targeted interventions.
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