Precedence effect and speech understanding in elderly listeners.

It has been reported that many elderly persons exhibit problems in identifying the location of fused auditory images in a test of the precedence effect in sound localization. The precedence effect involves the neural integration of multiple competing binaural temporal cues, and may reflect subtle age-related neural timing or integration problems. This study investigated whether elderly persons who have difficulty with this test also exhibit problems with speech understanding. The speech measures involved a comparison of performance-intensity functions for phonetically balanced (PB) words and for synthetic sentences presented with ipsilateral speech competition (SSI-ICM). The performance of the elderly subjects on the precedence effect test was significantly correlated with the SSI-max scores but not with PB-max. These findings suggest that age-related difficulties in speech understanding may reflect, at least in part, breakdowns in auditory temporal acuity or resolution.

[1]  D. B. Duncan.  MULTIPLE RANGE AND MULTIPLE F TESTS , 1955 .

[2]  J. Botwinick,et al.  Detection and decision factors in auditory behavior of the elderly. , 1971, Journal of gerontology.

[3]  Jerry L. Cranford,et al.  Role of neocortex in binaural hearing in the cat. II. The ‘precedence effect’ in sound localization , 1976, Brain Research.

[4]  C. J. Hardiman,et al.  Central auditory processing in normal-hearing elderly adults. , 1990, Audiology : official organ of the International Society of Audiology.

[5]  Leonard E. Cornelisse,et al.  The effect of cerebrovascular accident on the ability to localize sounds under conditions of the precedence effect , 1987, Neuropsychologia.

[6]  J. Jerger,et al.  Estimating speech threshold from the PI-PB function. , 1976, Archives of otolaryngology.

[7]  P. Mustillo,et al.  Auditory deficits in multiple sclerosis: a review. , 1984, Audiology : official organ of the International Society of Audiology.

[8]  J L Cranford,et al.  Effects of aging on the precedence effect in sound localization. , 1990, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[9]  S G Waxman,et al.  Membranes, myelin, and the pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis. , 1982, The New England journal of medicine.

[10]  J L Cranford,et al.  Tracking of a "moving" fused auditory image under conditions that elicit the precedence effect. , 1990, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[11]  C. Kamm,et al.  Use of performance-intensity functions for diagnosis. , 1977, The Journal of speech and hearing disorders.

[12]  J Cranford,et al.  Effects of unilateral ablation of auditory cortex in cat on complex sound localization. , 1972, Journal of neurophysiology.

[13]  J Jerger,et al.  Diagnostic significance of PB word functions. , 1971, Archives of otolaryngology.

[14]  J. Jerger,et al.  Diagnostic speech audiometry. , 1977, Archives of otolaryngology.

[15]  J Cranford,et al.  Unilateral Ablation of the Auditory Cortex in the Cat Impairs Complex Sound Localization , 1971, Science.

[16]  Patterns in the performance-intensity functions for phonetically balanced word lists and synthetic sentences in aged listeners. , 1982, Archives of otolaryngology.