| Popis: |
Existing evidence suggests that the left-ear deficit exhibited by older adults in dichotic listening tasks using linguistic stimuli may be explained by either age-related declines in the inter-hemispheric transfer through the corpus callosum or age-related declines in the right hemisphere. Little is known about the possible effect of ear asymmetries at the peripheral level that may contribute to the right-ear advantage (REA) observed in older adults for dichotic listening tasks. This study aims to determine if an age-related asymmetry in the peripheral auditory system is observed, and if so, if it correlates with an increased REA for dichotic listening tasks in older adults. In this PhD research project, a number of participants aged between 60 and 79 years with mild to moderate age-related hearing loss will be selected. Pure-tone thresholds, distortion product otoacoustic emissions with and without contralateral stimulation and electrophysiological techniques (e.g. click-ABR and complex-ABR) will be used to investigate the peripheral auditory function. Binaural integration will be measured with single, double and triple dichotic digit and single dichotic syllable tests. We hypothesize that age-related ear asymmetries in the peripheral auditory pathways are associated with an increased REA observed in older adults for linguistic dichotic listening tasks. In this presentation the methodology and preliminary results will be addressed. |
