The categorical perception of Mandarin tones in normal aging seniors and seniors with mild cognitive impairment

Abstract

Aging plays an important role in cognitive degradation. This study examined the behavioural performance of the categorical perception (CP) of Mandarin tones in young adults, normal aging older people, and those with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). The results revealed that in the identification function, boundary width of tone perception in MCI seniors was wider than that in young adults. In the discrimination function, the between-category accuracy in the MCI group was also significantly lower than that in young adults. No significant decline in tone perception was found in normal aging seniors, although they showed worse hearing sensitivity and cognitive ability compared with young adults. Our behavioural findings supported that the compensation mechanism might be observed in older people with normal performance, rather than those with degraded performance.