Is a Sex Difference in Audio–Visual Temporal Precision Consistent Across Age Groups? An Update on Hernández et al. (2019)

Hernández et al. (2019) previously reported independent age and sex differences in temporal audio–visual integration in a large national cohort of older adults. Susceptibility to the sound induced flash illusion (SIFI) at long stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) increased with age and was stronger in older adult females than males. However, it is unclear if this sex difference is stable across age. We reanalyzed the data set used by Hernández et al. (2019) on SIFI performance from 3,479 older adults (Mage = 64.20 years, SD = 7.77, range = 50–93; 56% female) across three age groups (50–64, 65–74, and 75+ years), drawn from The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. For the 70 ms SOA, females were less susceptible to the SIFI than males, irrespective of age. At longer SOAs (150 ms and 230 ms), females aged 50–64 years but not older were more susceptible to the SIFI than age-matched males. These findings extend those of Hernández et al. (2019) by indicating that age and sex can collectively influence the precision of multisensory integration exhibited by older adults.