XLI Individual Sound Damage Susceptibility

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Abstract
The relation of individual susceptibility to acoustic damage and individual variability in the activity of the middle ear muscle acoustic reflex was explored in a population of normal, awake cats. Each animal''s normal reflex responses to a battery of test stimuli were measured before sound trauma exposure, and then compared to the degree of sound trauma sustained. Animals with better-than-average sustained reflex contractions (over a one-minute test period) showed less sound damage than animals with less-than-average reflex responses. The reason for this correlation does not seem to lie within individual differences of middle ear mechanics or threshold acuity (reflex or auditory), and may be partially explained by differences in degree of habituation or adaptation. Important data on the recovery curve of the cochlear microphonic and the N1 response following sound trauma are presented but not discussed.

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