Hearing sensitivity within clinically normal range still declines measurably with age

Evidence

Participants were 132 native-English-speaking adults, sampled continuously from across the adult lifespan (range = 18–91 years). Older (≥ 60 years) participants were screened using the Mini Mental State Examination to confirm the absence of cognitive impairment. All participants had individual audiometric hearing thresholds of ≤ 20 dB HL at octave frequencies between 0.125 and 4 kHz, as well as at 3 kHz, in the test ear. Despite clinically “normal” audibility, the pure-tone average (PTA) for the tested frequency range declined as a function of age (r = 0.65, p ≤ 0.001, one-tailed). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1140

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1140
• XREF: connects to: Human audible frequency range narrows dramatically with age — Almo Farina, Soundscape Ecology: Principles,…, 1887