Age-related TFS decline correlates strongly with subtle absolute threshold variation even within normal hearing.

Evidence

Moore et al. ( 2012 ) used the TFS1 test with centre frequencies of 850 and 2000 Hz to test 35 subjects with audiometric thresholds ≤ 20 dB HL from 0.25 to 6 kHz and ages from 22 to 61 years. There were significant correlations between age and the thresholds in the TFS1 test (r = 0.69 and 0.57 for the centre frequencies of 850 and 2000 Hz, respectively). However, TFS1 scores at 850 Hz were correlated with absolute thresholds at 850 Hz (r = 0.67), even though audiometric thresholds were within the normal range, making it hard to rule out an effect of hearing loss. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 797

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• QUESTION: Does the r = 0.67 correlation between TFS1 and absolute threshold imply that even clinically ‘normal’ audiograms already reflect cochlear damage that degrades TFS, or that the TFS1 and threshold measures share a common neural substrate?
• XREF: Relevant to ‘hidden hearing loss’ literature — cochlear synaptopathy that spares audiometric thresholds but degrades TFS/spatial processing — a live debate in hearing science.

Related

• TFS1 thresholds correlate with age independent of audiometric hearing loss (similarity 0.93)
• Binaural TFS sensitivity declines with age even when audiograms are normal (similarity 0.86)
• Age-related hearing decline begins even with clinically normal pure-tone audiograms (similarity 0.84)
• Age-related hearing decline in noise begins while thresholds remain normal (similarity 0.83)
• Cochlear hearing loss independently degrades binaural processing of temporal fine structure (similarity 0.83)
• Age and hearing loss damage TFS but spare envelope cue processing (similarity 0.83)
• Binaural temporal fine structure sensitivity declines by middle age independently of hearing thresholds (similarity 0.83)
• Hearing loss correlates strongly with age even among listeners with clinically near-normal thresholds (similarity 0.82)
• Frequency selectivity, not temporal processing, drives age-related declines in Huggins-pitch thresholds. (similarity 0.82)
• Temporal-structure sensitivity declines with age even when audiograms remain normal. (similarity 0.82)
• Age-related presbycusis limits high-frequency hearing by the mid-twenties (similarity 0.82)
• Monaural temporal fine structure processing declines with age even without hearing loss. (similarity 0.82)
• Hearing sensitivity within clinically normal range still declines measurably with age (similarity 0.82)
• Hearing loss primarily harms monaural TFS processing while age harms binaural TFS processing (similarity 0.82)
• Hearing loss correlates strongly with age across a 71-person sample. (similarity 0.82)