Effect of Age on Sensitivity to Tonality

The sensitivity to tonality using the probe-tone technique is tested and the differences due to age, periodicity of the stimulus, and frequency range, is investigated. The differences in younger and older adults processing pitch relations in music and tonality referring to the attribute of auditory sensation and the hierarchical organization of pitches around the tonic or key-note of a piece of music are discussed. Sensitivity to the tonal hierarchy is found to be affected by pitch range and the periodicity of tones while the older adults with good audiornetric thresholds are believed to have age-related declines in various aspects of auditory temporal processing. The results show a significant main effects of age and and periodicity to measure tonal sensitivity of younger adults and older adults. The recovery scores for the younger adults with jittered tones are not found to differ from those of the older adults with normal tones.