Temporal-structure sensitivity declines with age even when audiograms remain normal.

Evidence

Füllgrabe et al. ( 2015 ) eliminated confounding effects of hearing loss by testing young (18–27 years) and older (60–79 years) subjects with matched audiograms. Both groups had audiometric thresholds ≤ 20 dB HL from 0.125 to 6 kHz. The TFS1 test was conducted using centre frequencies of 1 and 2 kHz. The older subjects performed significantly more poorly than the young subjects for both centre frequencies. Performance on the TFS1 task was not correlated with audiometric thresholds at the test frequencies. These results confirm that increased age is associated with a poorer ability to use monaural TFS cues, in the absence of any abnormality in the audiogram. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 793

Both speech in noise scores (r = ‑0.38, p < 0.03) and TFS sensitivity (r = ‑0.57, p < 0.001) were significantly negatively correlated with age. Older participants generally had worse speech scores, and worse TFS sensitivity, with a stronger relationship in the case of TFS sensitivity. Speech in noise performance was moderately and significantly related to TFS sensitivity (r = ‑0.34, p = 0.046). Participants who had good TFS sensitivity generally had good speech in noise scores (good scores are negative). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4190

Both speech in noise scores (r = ‑0.38, p < 0.03) and TFS sensitivity (r = ‑0.57, p < 0.001) were significantly negatively correlated with age. Older participants generally had worse speech scores, and worse TFS sensitivity, with a stronger relationship in the case of TFS sensitivity. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4187

Elderly listeners (ENH and EHI) showed higher thresholds than young listeners (YNH) in the TIME task (with both lowand high-frequency stimuli) and the HUGGINS task. This confirms earlier findings that the sensitivity to temporal structure declines without accompanying elevated audiometric thresholds (e.g., Hopkins and Moore 2011 ). … Despite these consistent declines in the performance of the monaural tasks with age, the present study failed to find significant age effect in the lateralization tasks (ITD and ILD ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1026

We adopted early-elderly listeners because generally they would exhibit deteriorated sensitivities to temporal structures of stimuli, while their audiometric thresholds remain within a normal to mildely-impaired range. — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1027

Elderly listeners (ENH and EHI) showed higher thresholds than young listeners (YNH) in the TIME task (with both lowand high-frequency stimuli) and the HUGGINS task. This confirms earlier findings that the sensitivity to temporal structure declines without accompanying elevated audiometric thresholds (e.g., Hopkins and Moore 2011 ). Thresholds for the LEVEL task also tended to be higher in the elderly than the young, consistently with previous finding (e.g., He et al. 1998 ). Despite these consistent declines in the performance of the monaural tasks with age, the present study failed to find significant age effect in the lateralization tasks (ITD and ILD ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1078

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The matched-audiogram design cleanly separates age from hearing loss, a rare experimental isolation that overturns the assumption that a normal audiogram implies normal hearing across all dimensions.
• XREF: Extends the core hearing theme: age-related loss of temporal fine structure coding in otherwise normal audiograms, connecting to cochlear synaptopathy literature. — connects to: Hearing is highly sensitive to temporal changes in sound — Ville Pulkki, Matti Karjalainen, Communication Acoustics- An…, 685; Aging degrades listening judgment reliability despite accumulated expertise.; Age and accumulated noise exposure degrade even expert listening panel reliability (+15 more)
• corroborated: 10 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 793; Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4190; Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 4187 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The audiogram cannot predict which hearing-impaired listeners have temporal processing deficits #corroborates (0.78) — Jennifer Lentz, Psychoacoustics- Perception of Normal…, 1088