Frequency discrimination thresholds are 2-4 times worse in older adults with normal audiograms.

Evidence

It is widely believed that the difference limen for frequency (DLF) of pure tones depends on the use of TFS information for frequencies up to 4–5 kHz (Moore 1973 ), and perhaps even up to 8 kHz (Moore and Ernst 2012 ). If so, the DLF at low and medium frequencies provides a measure of TFS processing. Abel et al. ( 1990 ) and He et al. ( 1998 ) compared DLFs for young and older subjects with normal hearing (audiometric thresholds ≤20 dB HL from 0.25 to 4 kHz). In both studies, DLFs were larger by a factor of 2–4 for the older than for the younger subjects, suggesting that there is an effect of age. However, performance on other tasks (duration discrimination for Abel et al. and intensity discrimination for He et al.) was also poorer for the older group, suggesting that there may be a general effect of age that leads to reduced “processing efficiency”. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 796

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general theme of ‘processing efficiency’ decline with age as distinct from sensory loss, which parallels the reader’s existing interest in how peripheral and central aging factors separate.