Abel S M, Giguère C, Consoli A, Papsin B C
The Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2000 Aug;108(2):743-52. doi: 10.1121/1.429607.
An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of aging on sound localization. Seven groups of 16 subjects, aged 10-81 years, were tested. Sound localization was assessed using six different arrays of four or eight loudspeakers that surrounded the subject in the horizontal plane, at a distance of 1 m. For two 4-speaker arrays, one loudspeaker was positioned in each spatial quadrant, on either side of the midline or the interaural axis, respectively. For four 8-speaker arrays, two loudspeakers were positioned in each quadrant, one close to the midline and the second separated from the first by 15 degrees, 30 degrees, 45 degrees, or 60 degrees. Three different 300-ms stimuli were localized: two one-third-octave noise bands, centered at 0.5 and 4 kHz, and broadband noise. The stimulus level (75 dB SPL) was well above hearing threshold for all subjects tested. Over the age range studied, percent-correct sound-source identification judgments decreased by 12%-15%. Performance decrements were apparent as early as the third decade of life. Broadband noise was easiest to localize (both binaural and spectral cues were available), and the 0.5-kHz noise band, the most difficult to localize (primarily interaural temporal difference cue available). Accuracy was relatively higher in front of than behind the head, and errors were largely front/back mirror image reversals. A left-sided superiority was evident until the fifth decade of life. The results support the conclusions that the processing of spectral information becomes progressively less efficient with aging, and is generally worse for sources on the right side of space.
进行了一项实验以确定衰老对声音定位的影响。测试了七组共112名年龄在10至81岁之间的受试者。使用六个由四个或八个扬声器组成的不同阵列来评估声音定位，这些扬声器在水平面上围绕受试者，距离为1米。对于两个四扬声器阵列，每个空间象限中分别在中线或双耳轴的两侧各放置一个扬声器。对于四个八扬声器阵列，每个象限中放置两个扬声器，一个靠近中线，第二个与第一个相隔15度、30度、45度或60度。对三种不同的300毫秒刺激进行定位：两个中心频率分别为0.5千赫和4千赫的三分之一倍频程噪声带，以及宽带噪声。刺激水平（75分贝声压级）远高于所有受试对象的听力阈值。在所研究的年龄范围内，正确的声源识别判断百分比下降了12%至15%。早在成年的第三个十年，性能下降就很明显。宽带噪声最容易定位（双耳和频谱线索都可用），而0.5千赫的噪声带最难定位（主要是双耳时间差线索可用）。头部前方的准确性相对高于后方，并且错误大多是前后镜像反转。直到成年的第五个十年，左侧优势都很明显。结果支持以下结论：随着年龄增长，频谱信息的处理效率逐渐降低，并且对于空间右侧的声源，处理效率通常更差。
