title: Comparing the effects of age on amplitude modulation and frequency modulation detection.
abstract: Frequency modulation (FM) and amplitude modulation (AM) detection thresholds were measured at 40 dB sensation level for young (22-28 yrs) and older (44-66 yrs) listeners with normal audiograms for a carrier frequency of 500 Hz and modulation rates of 2 and 20 Hz. The number of modulation cycles, N, varied between 2 and 9. For FM detection, uninformative AM at the same rate as the FM was superimposed to disrupt excitation-pattern cues. For both groups, AM and FM detection thresholds were lower for the 2-Hz than for the 20-Hz rate, and AM and FM detection thresholds decreased with increasing N. Thresholds were higher for older than for younger listeners, especially for FM detection at 2 Hz, possibly reflecting the effect of age on the use of temporal-fine-structure cues for 2-Hz FM detection. The effect of increasing N was similar across groups for both AM and FM. However, at 20 Hz, older listeners showed a greater effect of increasing N than younger listeners for both AM and FM. The results suggest that ageing reduces sensitivity to both excitation-pattern and temporal-fine-structure cues for modulation detection, but more so for the latter, while sparing temporal integration of these cues at low modulation rates.
authors.affiliation: UMR CNRS LSP 8248, Institut d'Etude de la Cognition, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wallaert
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Brian C J
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.affiliation: UMR CNRS LSP 8248, Institut d'Etude de la Cognition, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris Sciences et Lettres, 29 rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lorenzi
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003463:Cues; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010898:Pitch Perception; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult