title: Aging effect on dichotic listening of Cantonese.
abstract: Cantonese dichotic digits recognition was evaluated in free-recall, directed-attention right, and directed-attention left response conditions. All participants were right-handed and included a group of young adults with normal hearing and a group of older adults with minimal sensorineural hearing loss. In all conditions, performance by the young adults was better than performance by the older adults. A right-ear advantage was observed for both groups. Due to a greater deficit in dichotic digits recognition performance in the left ear of older subjects their right-ear advantages were larger than those for the young adults. The results support an age-related disadvantage in recognition performance for dichotic stimuli presented to the left ear of older subjects that is not entirely accounted for by differences in hearing sensitivity between subject groups but may be related to a primary cognitive deficit.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong. annakam@ent.cuhk.edu.hk
authors.forename: Anna Chi Shan
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Kam
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Keith
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002681:China; D003071:Cognition; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult