Design and construction of a noise exposure chamber for small animals

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In bioacoustic experiments, it is often necessary to expose large numbers of animals to the same acoustic stimulus. Because each animal affects the sound field, researchers have often resorted to exposing single animals in a serial fashion. This is a very time-consuming approach. In this work, a second tack was taken. By extending the nearfield of an exponential horn to include the volume enclosing the experimental subjects, a highly uniform sound field can be generated. A small exposure chamber was built, lined with modeled open-cell polyurethane foam that met the following criteria: homogeneity of field spectrum across all subject locations; a sufficiently wide bandpass for the chamber-horn assembly; and minimal loading of the horn by the chamber. The resulting chamber allows for exposure of two chinchillas (or other small animals) in a controlled environment.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: