Task-optimal auditory attention set restored as fast in older as in younger adults after distraction

•The duration of distraction was compared between older and younger adults.•Sounds in the focus of attention elicit enhanced N1 event-related potentials.•The temporal separation between distracter and target was manipulated.•Distracter-target separation-related N1 modulation was similar between age-groups.•The sensory consequences of distraction do not last longer in older adults.

The present study investigated how fast younger and older adults recovered from a distracted attentional state induced by rare, unpredictable sound events. The attentional state was characterized by the auditory N1 event-related potential (ERP), which is enhanced for sound events in the focus of attention. Younger (19-26 years) and older (62-74 years) adults listened to continuous tones containing rare pitch changes (glides) and short gaps. Glides and gaps could be separated in 150 ms, 250 ms, 650 ms or longer and the task was gap detection while ignoring glides. With longer glide-gap separations similar N1 enhancements were observable in both groups suggesting that the duration of the distracted sensory state was not affected by aging. Older adults responded, however, slower at short glide-gap separations which indicated that distraction at subsequent levels of processing may have nonetheless more impact in older than in younger adults.