The present article contains a brief review of the literature concerning auditory aging, describing studies on the effects of aging on temporal auditory processing, and more specifically, studies about the detection of gaps in sounds, by aging subjects. Definitions, descriptions, consequences and prevalence of presbycusis are discussed. Experimental procedures for research on temporal processing involving the detection of gaps in broadband noises, discrimination of sounds with temporal reversal, detection of sound amplitude changes, detection of gaps on narrowband sounds, detection of differences of duration between two stimuli, as well as the discrimination of the temporal order of different frequency channels composing complex tones are described. Additionally, studies describing the psychophysical characteristics of temporal auditory processing in elderly subjects are reviewed. Finally, suggestions about future directions of research are presented.
auditory aging; auditory temporal processing; auditory psychophysics; gap detection