Do circadian rhythms affect adult age-related differences in auditory performance?
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.
Ezzatian
Payam
P
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. payam.ezzatian@utoronto.ca
Pichora-Fuller
Margaret Kathleen
MK
Schneider
Bruce A
BA
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
D006854:Hydrocortisone