摘要Objective:Contribute to clarifying the existence of subclinical hearing deficits associated with aging.Design:In this work,we study and compare the auditory perceptual and electrophysiological perfor-mance of normal-hearing young and adult subjects(tonal audiometry,high-frequency tone threshold,a triplet of digits in noise,and click-evoked auditory brainstem response).Study sample:45 normal hearing volunteers were evaluated and divided into two groups according to age.27 subjects were included in the"young group"(mean 22.1 years),and 18 subjects(mean 42.22 years)were included in the"adult group."Results:In the perceptual tests,the adult group presented significantly worse tonal thresholds in the high frequencies(12 and 16 kHz)and worse performance in the digit triplet tests in noise.In the electro-physiological test using the auditory brainstem response technique,the adult group presented signifi-cantly lowerⅠandⅤwave amplitudes and higherⅤwave latencies at the supra-threshold level.At the threshold level,we observed a significantly higher latency in waveⅤin the adult group.In addition,in the partial correlation analysis,controlling for the hearing level,we observed a relationship(negative)between age and speech in noise performance and high-frequency thresholds.No significant association was observed between age and the auditory brainstem response.Conclusion:The results are compatible with subclinical hearing loss associated with aging.