title: Gap detection in school-age children and adults: effects of inherent envelope modulation and the availability of cues across frequency.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present study evaluated the effects of inherent envelope modulation and the availability of cues across frequency on behavioral gap detection with noise-band stimuli in school-age children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Listeners were 34 normal-hearing children (ages 5.2-15.6 years) and 12 normal-hearing adults (ages 18.5-28.8 years). Stimuli were continuous bands of noise centered on 2000 Hz, either 1000- or 25-Hz wide. In addition to Gaussian noise at these bandwidths, there were conditions using 25-Hz-wide noise bands modified to either accentuate or minimize inherent envelope modulation (staccato and low-fluctuation noise, respectively).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Within the 25-Hz-wide conditions, adults' gap detection thresholds were highest in the staccato, lower in the Gaussian, and lowest in the low-fluctuation noise. Similar trends were evident in children's thresholds, although inherent envelope modulation had a smaller effect on children than on adults. Whereas adults' thresholds were comparable for the 1000-Hz-wide Gaussian and 25-Hz-wide low-fluctuation stimulus, children's performance converged on adults' performance at a younger age for the 1000-Hz-wide Gaussian stimulus.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results are consistent with the idea that children are less susceptible to the disruptive effects of inherent envelope modulation than adults when detecting a gap in a narrow-band noise. Further, the ability to use spectrally distributed gap detection cues appears to mature relatively early in childhood.
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Buss
authors.forename: Joseph W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Porter
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Grose
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003463:Cues; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009622:Noise; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D055815:Young Adult