title: Delayed Stream Segregation in Older Adults: More Than Just Informational Masking.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether the time course for the buildup of auditory stream segregation differs between younger and older adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  Word recognition thresholds were determined for the first and last keywords in semantically anomalous but syntactically correct sentences (e.g., "A rose could paint a fish") when the target sentences were masked by speech-spectrum noise, 3-band vocoded speech, 16-band vocoded speech, intact and colocated speech, and intact and spatially separated speech. A significant reduction in thresholds from the first to the last keyword was interpreted as indicating that stream segregation improved with time.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The buildup of stream segregation is slowed for both age groups when the masker is intact, colocated speech.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Older adults are more disadvantaged; for them, stream segregation is also slowed even when a speech masker is spatially separated, conveys little meaning (3-band vocoding), and vocal fine structure cues are impoverished but envelope cues remain available (16-band vocoding).
authors.affiliation: 1Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and 2Department of Psychology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Payam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ezzatian
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Kathy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pichora-Fuller
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Schneider
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio; D013067:Speech Perception; D013069:Speech Reception Threshold Test; D055815:Young Adult