Auditory temporal processing in elderly listeners.

This paper examines the hypothesis that auditory temporal processing is impaired in elderly listeners. Several recent psychoacoustic studies are reviewed that describe various aspects of temporal processing that appear to be influenced by aging. The temporal phenomena range from measures of temporal resolution and duration discrimination to sequential processing of complex stimulus patterns. For many of the research findings, age-related deficits on temporal performance measures are unaffected by the presence of presbyacusic hearing loss. Additionally, the consequences of aging on auditory temporal processing appear to be correlated with the complexity of stimulation and the difficulty of the listening tasks.