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Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research Vol.51 539-556 April 2008. doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2008/039)
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
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Binaural Advantage for Younger and Older Adults With Normal Hearing

Judy R. Dubno
Jayne B. Ahlstrom
Amy R. Horwitz
Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston

Contact author: Judy R. Dubno, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, SC 29425-5500. E-mail: dubnojr{at}musc.edu.

Purpose: Three experiments measured benefit of spatial separation, benefit of binaural listening, and masking-level differences (MLDs) to assess age-related differences in binaural advantage.

Method: Participants were younger and older adults with normal hearing through 4.0 kHz. Experiment 1 compared spatial benefit with and without head shadow. Sentences were at 0o, and speech-shaped noise was at 0o, 90o, or ±90o. Experiment 2 measured binaural benefit with the near ear unplugged compared with plugged for sentences at 0o and masker at 90o. Experiment 3 measured MLDs under earphones for 0.5-kHz pure tones in Gaussian and low-noise noise, and spondees in speech-shaped noise.

Results: Spatial-separation benefit for speech did not differ significantly for younger and older adults but was smaller than predicted by an audibility-based model for older adults and larger than predicted for younger adults. Binaural listening benefit was observed for younger participants only. Tonal MLDs suggested that listeners benefit from interaural difference cues during noise dips for signals out of phase. Neither tonal nor speech MLDs differed significantly between younger and older participants.

Conclusion: Binaural processing of sentences revealed some age-related deficits in the use of interaural difference cues, whereas no deficits were observed for more simple detection or recognition tasks.

KEY WORDS: aging, binaural advantage, binaural hearing, speech recognition in noise


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