The effect of age on attentional modulation in Dichotic listening.
The right-ear advantage (REA) in Dichotic listening (DL) reflects stimulus-driven bottom-up asymmetry in speech processing. The REA can be modified by top-down attentional control. We investigated attentional control in DL task as a function of age. A total of 186 participants between the ages of 5 and 79 years were tested. The youngest children demonstrated a REA that was not modified by attention, suggesting that bottom-up functional asymmetry was present. The 10-11-year-olds began to show ability to voluntarily modify DL, but only young adults were fully capable of doing so. In 59-79-year-olds, this top-down attentional control was lost again.
Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. fiia.takio@uti.fi
Fiia
F
Takio
Mika
M
Koivisto
Laura
L
Jokiranta
Faramosh
F
Rashid
Johanna
J
Kallio
Tuulikki
T
Tuominen
Seppo J
SJ
Laukka
Heikki
H
Hämäläinen
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000091402:Prohibitins; D055815:Young Adult