Threshold-Duration Function of the Acoustic Reflex in Man

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The threshold-duration function of the acoustic reflex was investigated in 5 male and 5 female adult, normal-hearing humans and in 3 adult male subjects with hearing loss of cochlear etiology. Reflex threshold was obtained at stimulus durations of 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 msec and at frequencies of 500, 1 000, 2 000, 3 000, and 4 000 Hz. Three commercially available acoustic bridges were employed, the Madsen ZO-70 and Grason-Stadler 1720 electroacoustic bridges, and the Grason-Stadler-Zwislocki model 3 mechanical-acoustic bridge. A probe-tone frequency of 220 Hz was used in all measures. The reflex threshold-duration function for normal-hearing subjects was found to encompass a much greater range of intensity than the psychophysically assessed auditory threshold temporal integration function. A sex difference was found which may be explained by subclinical noise-induced cochlear pathology in the male subjects with subsequent truncation of the reflex threshold-duration function. The function was also found to be truncated in the 3 subjects with hearing loss diagnosed to be of cochlear etiology. The implications of these findings for control of stimulus duration in clinical reflex measurement was discussed.

This publication has 25 references indexed in Scilit: