Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T12:06:03.761Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do Circadian Rhythms Affect Adult Age-Related Differences in Auditory Performance?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2010

Payam Ezzatian ,
Margaret Kathleen Pichora-Fuller  and
Bruce A. Schneider
Payam Ezzatian*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
Margaret Kathleen Pichora-Fuller
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
Bruce A. Schneider
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to / La correspondance concernant cet article doit être adressées à: Payam Ezzatian, MA. Department of Psychology University of Toronto 3359 Mississauga Rd. N Mississauga, Ontario Canada L5L 1C6 ([email protected])
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Time-of-day effects have been identified as a possible confound in research on age-related differences in cognitive performance. Circadian rhythms have been related to time-of-day variations in sensory measures; however, more is known about the effect of circadian rhythms on vision than on hearing, and virtually nothing is known about whether time-of-day effects are potential confounds in studies of auditory aging. The purpose of the current study was to determine whether age-related differences in performance on auditory tasks are affected by time of day. A set of four auditory experiments was repeated three times over the course of one day with a group of Evening-type younger adults and a group of Morning-type older adults. The results replicated previous findings of age-related differences, but time of day did not affect the basic results. Thus, time of day does not confound the results observed in typical laboratory experiments investigating auditory aging.

Résumé

Les effets de l’heure du jour ont été identifiés comme facteur de confusion potentiel dans la recherche portant sur la performance cognitive en fonction de l’âge. Les rythmes circadiens ont étés liés aux variations des mesures sensorielles en fonction de l’heure du jour; cependant, on en sait davantage sur l’effet des rythmes circadiens sur la vision que sur l’audition. On ne sait pratiquement rien en ce qui concerne les effets de l’heure du jour comme facteur de confusion potentiel dans les études portant sur le vieillissement auditif. L’objectif de la présente étude était de déterminer si les différences liées à l’âge observées dans l’exécution de tâches auditives étaient affectées par l’heure du jour. Un ensemble de quatre expériences auditives a été répété trois fois au cours d’une journée avec un groupe de jeunes adultes « du soir » et un groupe d’adultes aînés « du matin ». Les résultats reproduisent les constatations précédentes concernant les différences liées à l’âge, mais l’heure du jour n’affecte pas les résultats de base. Donc, l’heure du jour n’est pas un facteur de confusion sur les résultats observés dans des expériences de laboratoire typiques qui étudient le vieillissement auditif.

Keywords

rythmes circadiensl’auditionvieillissementcircadian rhythmshearingaging
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 2010 , pp. 215 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Babkoff, H., Zukerman, G.L., Fostick, L., & Ben-Artzi, E. (2005). Effect of the diurnal rhythm and 24 h of sleep deprivation on dichotic temporal order judgment. Journal of Sleep Research, 14(1), 7–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burke, B.M., & Shafto, M.A. (2008). Language and aging. In Craik, F.I.M. & Salthouse, T.A. (Eds.), The handbook of aging and cognition (3rd ed., pp. 373–433). New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Cooper, B. (1994). Out of body. Instant applause: 26 very short complete plays (pp. 53–58). Winnipeg, Ontario, Canada: Blizzard Publishing.Google Scholar
Harnetiaux, B.P. (1993). The lemonade stand. In Bert, N.A. & Bert, D. (Eds.), Play it again! More one-act plays for acting students (pp. 55–61). Colorado Springs, CO: Meriwether Publishing.Google Scholar
Hasher, L., Goldstein, D., & May, C.P. (2005). In Izawa, C. & Ohta, N. (Eds.), It’s about time: Circadian rhythms, memory, and aging. Human learning and memory: Advances in theory and application: The 4th Tsukuba International Conference on Memory (pp. 199–217). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Horne, J.A., & Ostberg, O. (1976). A self-assessment questionnaire to determine morningness-eveningness in human circadian rhythms. International Journal of Chronobiology, 4, 97–110.Google ScholarPubMed
Kripke, D.F., Youngstedt, S.D., Elliott, J.A., Tuunainen, A., Rex, K.M., Hauger, R.L., et al. . (2005). Circadian phase in adults of contrasting ages. Chronobiology International, 22(4), 695–709.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levitt, H. (1971). Transformed up-down methods in psychoacoustics. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 49(2), 467–477.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lotze, M., Treutwein, B., & Roenneberg, T. (2000). Daily rhythm of vigilance assessed by temporal resolution of the visual system. Vision Research, 40(25), 3467–3473.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
May, C.P., Hasher, L., & Stoltzfus, E.R. (1993). Optimal time of day and the magnitude of age-differences in memory. Psychological Science, 4(5), 326–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, G.A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review, 63, 81–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Monk, T.H., Buysse, D.J., Reynolds, C.F., Berga, S.L., Jarrett, D.B., Begley, A.E., et al. . (1997). Circadian rhythms in human performance and mood under constant conditions. Journal of Sleep Research, 6(1), 9–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murphy, D.R., Daneman, M., & Schneider, B.A. (2006). Why do older adults have difficulty following conversations? Psychology and Aging, 21(1), 49–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murphy, D.R., Schneider, B.A., Speranza, F., & Moraglia, G. (2006). Comparison of higher order auditory processes in younger and older adults. Psychology and Aging, 21(4), 763–773.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pichora-Fuller, M.K., Schneider, B.A., Benson, N.J., Hamstra, S.J., & Storzer, E. (2006). Effect of age on detection of gaps in speech and nonspeech markers varying in duration and spectral symmetry. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119(2), 1143–1155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reynolds, W. (1993). Absolution. In Bert, N.A. & Bert, D. (Eds.), Play it again! More one-act plays for acting students (pp. 133–140). Colorado Springs, CO: Meriwether Publishing.Google Scholar
Schneider, B.A., & Pichora-Fuller, M.K. (2000). Implications of perceptual processing for cognitive aging research. In Craik, F.I.M. & Salthouse, T.A. (Eds.), The handbook of aging and cognition (2nd ed., pp. 155–219). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Schneider, B.A., Pichora-Fuller, M.K., Kowalchuk, D., & Lamb, M. (1994). Gap detection and the precedence effect in young and old adults. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 95, 980–991.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tassi, P., Pellerin, N., Moessinger, M., Eschenlauer, R., & Muzet, A. (2000). Variation of visual detection over the 24-hour period in humans. Chronobiology International, 17(6), 795–805.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
West, R., Murphy, K.J., Armilio, M.L., Craik, F.I.M., & Stuss, D.T. (2002). Effects of time of day on age differences in working memory. Journals of Gerontology Series B-Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57(1), P3–P10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, K.P., Hull, J.T., & Czeisler, C.A. (2002). Relationship between alertness, performance, and body temperature in humans. American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory Integrative and Comparative Physiology, 283(6), R1370–R1377.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed