title: Do circadian rhythms affect adult age-related differences in auditory performance?
abstract: Time-of-day effects have been identified as a possible confound in research on age-related differences in cognitive performance. Circadian rhythms have been related to time-of-day variations in sensory measures; however, more is known about the effect of circadian rhythms on vision than on hearing, and virtually nothing is known about whether time-of-day effects are potential confounds in studies of auditory aging. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether age-related differences in performance on auditory tasks are affected by time of day. A set of four auditory experiments was repeated three times over the course of one day with a group of Evening-type younger adults and a group of Morning-type older adults. The results replicated previous findings of age-related differences, but time of day did not affect the basic results. Thus, time of day does not confound the results observed in typical laboratory experiments investigating auditory aging.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. payam.ezzatian@utoronto.ca
authors.forename: Payam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ezzatian
authors.forename: Margaret Kathleen
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Pichora-Fuller
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Schneider
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D001831:Body Temperature / Q000502:physiology; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous / Q000502:physiology; D012022:Reflex, Acoustic / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone