Dichotic performance in elderly Italians with Italian stop consonant-vowel stimuli.

Dichotic listening tests were carried out at various interaural onset asynchronies (from 0 to 500 ms) on normal-hearing young and elderly subjects using a free recall method. The stimuli were Italian stop consonant and vowel syllables computer-edited to reduce prevoicing of the consonant and vowel syllables from the original 100-120 ms to 30 ms. Results suggest that right-ear advantage is uninfluenced by age, despite a significantly lower total dichotic performance and abnormal lag effect in the older group.