This study examined the effects of selective attention versus stimulus competition
on the late auditory evoked potential (LAEP) in 20 young and 20 elderly listeners.
In a series of test runs, different oddball tonal sequences were presented to one
or both ears, and listeners were instructed to attend to tones at a specific target
ear. Peak amplitudes were recorded for the N1, P2, and the early and late N2 components
of the LAEP. Significant attention effects were found for all four components. N1
amplitudes increased significantly when participants attended to the target stimuli,
whereas the amplitudes of P2, N2e, and N2l decreased. For all LAEP components except
N2l, the attention effect did not differ between young and elderly listeners. Significant
competition effects also were found for all four components. Amplitudes were significantly
larger in monaural than binaural conditions for all components except N2l. The magnitude
of this competition effect also was significantly larger for the young listeners than
the elderly for all components except N1. These results suggest that the ability to
attend selectively to sounds may be more resistant to normal aging than are effects
related to stimulus competition.
Key Words
Attention - auditory event-related potential - competition - N1 - P2 - N2e - N2L -
processing negativity
