Measurement of Perstimulatory Auditory Adaptation

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Abstract
The most frequently used estimate of perstimulatory auditory adaptation to a tone sustained in one (experimental) ear has been the intensity decrease at the contralateral (control) ear required for median-plane localization during successive 15-sec comparison intervals. Use of such a measure assumes that only negligible adaptation occurs in the control ear during these 15 sec. The results of this investigation show this assumption to be untenable. Adaptation in the control ear was measured by maintaining the experimental ear in an adapted state and then sustaining the comparison stimulus in the control ear. As the control ear adapted, the phantom sound associated with the tones to both ears moved toward the median plane. The time for this moving phantom sound to reach the median plane varied with the intensity and frequency of the comparison stimulus. The extent and rate of adaptation in the control ear was found to be such that all estimates of adaptation to tones sustained in the experimental ear are specific to the procedures used.

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