Minimum Audible Angle and the Acoustic Change Complex Elicited by Azimuthal Shifts in Low-Frequency Sounds: Effects of Age.
John H Grose, Monica Folkerts, Emily Buss
PMID 41100714WHAT IT FOUND
Older adults had worse behavioral spatial hearing than younger adults, but a brain-wave measure of the same ability did not predict individual behavioral scores.
The brain-wave test is not yet a reliable proxy for behavioral spatial hearing in this context.
Key findings
01Behavioral minimum audible angle thresholds were significantly higher (worse) in the Older group compared to the Young group, with the Mid-Age group intermediate.
02The Acoustic Change Complex (ACC) was only elicited when the azimuthal shift was 13.5 degrees or greater; no response was detected for smaller shifts of 4.5 or 9 degrees.
03There was no significant correlation between individual behavioral MAA scores and electrophysiological ACC measures, suggesting the brain-wave response does not predict behavioral performance.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The ACC was only measured for a midline reference (0°), whereas behavioral age effects were more pronounced at off-midline references. The study used low-frequency narrow-band noise, which may not reflect spatial hearing difficulties in complex, wideband real-world environments. The lack of correlation between behavioral and electrophysiological measures may be due to differences in the stimulus presentation configuration between the two tasks.
Declared interests
Funding was provided by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (Grant No. R01DC019444). The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a normal or robust Acoustic Change Complex (ACC) response indicates normal behavioral spatial hearing. The study found no association between the two measures, so an objective brain-wave test cannot currently be used to diagnose or rule out spatial hearing deficits in older adults.