Auditory Lateralization: Age Differences in Sensitivity to Dichotic Time and Amplitude Cues

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Abstract
Eight older (60-72 years) and eight younger (22-32 years) men identified the apparent left or right location of a train of clicks presented binaurally via headphones. In one condition, interaural click-onset asynchrony provided the lateralization cue; in another, dichotic amplitude lateralization was investigated. A forced-choice random-staircase method was used to find 70%-correct-response thresholds. With temporal lateralization cues, older participants required longer time delays than the younger participants. However, when the stimuli were lateralized by interaural amplitude differences, both young and old performed equally well. Although interaural time and intensity differences are the major cues used to localize the source of a sound, the results obtained suggest an age-related decline only in the ability to utilize the time cue. The experiment may provide isolation of a factor contributing to the difficulty of older individuals in locating sound sources and in understanding speech in situations where surrounding auditory space is noisy.

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