Lower Frequencies Boost Ability of Older Adults to Separate Sounds

By Elizabeth Dinces, M.D.

Why do older adults with typical hearing often struggle to hear in noisy environments, like a crowded restaurant? The ability to focus on one sound, such as a single person’s voice, while ignoring background noise is called "auditory scene analysis." This skill can become harder with age, but it's not clear why.

My colleague Elyse Sussman, Ph.D., and I wanted to see how well older adults could separate and identify different sounds in both active (focusing on sounds) and passive (ignoring sounds while watching a movie) situations. We tested this by playing tones at different frequencies (high and low) and analyzing results using behavioral and brain measures. 

We had previously shown that older adults could not distinguish between different sound streams as well as younger adults when using higher-frequency sounds (above 1,500 Hz). The range of frequencies did not affect how well younger adults could distinguish and separate different sounds when listening to overlapping streams of audio.

For our new study, we used lower-frequency sounds (below 1,500 Hz) to see if it made a difference. When using lower-frequency sounds, older adults performed just as well as younger adults in separating different sound streams. Our results were published in Hearing Research in September 2024.

These findings mean lower-frequency sounds may help older adults better understand complex sound environments. This may be useful for designing better hearing aids or other devices to help older people hear more clearly.

Elizabeth Dinces, M.D., is the director of otology & neurotology and the Wakefield Division of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, as well as an Associate Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her 2011–2012 Emerging Research Grant was generously funded by Royal Arch Research Assistance. 

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