Age differences in intention to left and right hemispace using a dichotic listening paradigm

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Gerontology

Background:

• Previous research suggests age-related decline in right cerebral hemisphere function (right hemiaging hypothesis).
• Findings on the right hemiaging hypothesis are mixed, potentially due to varying task complexities in dichotic listening studies.
• Cerebral laterality, the brain's functional specialization, is often assessed using dichotic listening tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the influence of age on cerebral laterality in younger and older women.
• To test if complex dichotic listening tasks reveal age-related differences not apparent with simpler tasks.
• To examine age differences in auditory attention switching using dichotic listening.

Main Methods:

• Assessed cerebral laterality in younger and elderly women using dichotic listening.
• Employed traditional concurrent phoneme presentation and a novel intentional task requiring attention switching.
• Measured right ear advantage (REA) and ability to switch auditory attention to specific ears.

Main Results:

• No significant age difference in REA was found using the traditional dichotic listening task.
• Older women demonstrated significantly greater difficulty switching auditory attention to the left ear compared to younger women.
• No age difference was observed in the ability to switch attention to the right ear.

Conclusions:

• The right hemiaging hypothesis is supported by findings from complex, intentional dichotic listening tasks.
• Age-related changes in cerebral laterality may be task-dependent, particularly concerning attentional control.
• Older women exhibit specific deficits in shifting auditory attention, highlighting potential age-related functional changes in the brain.