Influence of Age on Auditory Gating

• Main Author: Smith, Ginny Marissa
• Format: Others
• Published: BYU ScholarsArchive 2006
• Subjects: auditory gating; P50; auditory evoked potentials; age; maturation changes; middle latency auditory evoked potentials; Communication Sciences and Disorders
• Online Access: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/436; https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1435&context=etd

This study utilized paired tones at 1000 Hz with a 500 ms interpair interval and a 10 s interstimulus interval to assess sensory gating. Forty-two participants, ranging from 3-72 years of age were used to observe maturational changes in amplitude, latency, and suppression ratios of the P50 waveform. Previous research has shown that in normal adults the amplitude in response to the second of the paired tones is significantly suppressed compared to the amplitude in response to the first tone. The current study showed amplitude decreased with age to middle adulthood, where it increased slightly to later adulthood. Latencies decreased with age. Suppression ratios decreased from childhood to adolescence, with an increase from early adulthood to later adulthood. Sensory gating would appear to be a later developing aspect of human sensory physiology. Also similar to many other brain functions, sensory gating decreases in later adulthood.