Further studies on quiet threshold shift in the absence of noise

✍ Scribed by M.C. Lower; A.M. Martin

• Book ID: 104153721
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1975
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 288 KB
• Volume: 38
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-460X
• DOI: 10.1016/s0022-460x(75)80001-0

✦ Synopsis

Previous work has indicated that, after sitting in a quiet room for one hour, subjects with normal hearing can show substantial improvements in hearing acuity. Such effects could have important consequences when the threshold of hearing is measured over similar periods of time under continuously quiet conditions. An experiment was carried out to re-evaluate this effect and to obtain some indication of its possible cause. Attempts to re-arouse the threshold were also made by the presentation of noise and exercise stimuli at the end of the quiet period.

When a more sensitive audiometric technique was used, a slight quiet threshold shift of the order of 2.5 dB was measured. No definite conclusion could be drawn as to the exact cause of this shift, but it would appear to be due to a combination of a recovery from temporary threshold shift caused by exposure to everyday noise and a reduction in the subject's internal physiological noise during the experiment.