Frequency selectivity in loudness adaptation and auditory fatigue

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Abstract
An intermittent monaural tone may induce a decline in the loudness of a continuous tone presented to the same ear [Canévet e t a l., Br. J. Audiol. 1 7, 49–57 (1983)]. Two experiments studied the frequency selectivity of loudness adaptation induced in this manner. The method of successive magnitude estimations was used to measure the loudness of a monaural 84‐s test tone before and after a single presentation of a 24‐s inducer tone in the same ear. The first experiment shows that, for an inducing tone (500, 1000, or 3000 Hz) approximately 15 dB more intense than a test tone set to one of 21 different frequencies, adaptation is greatest when the two tones have the same frequency; with increasing difference between the test‐tone and inducer frequencies, adaptation progressively declines. The second experiment measured frequency selectivity in the loudness reduction caused by a 1000‐Hz inducer as a function of its level. As inducer level went from 75 to 95 dB (with test tone constant at 60 phons), selectivity passes progressively from the type seen in short‐term or low‐level fatigue (maximal for the 1000‐Hz test tone) to a type seen in long‐term or high‐level fatigue (maximal at frequencies higher than that of the inducer or fatiguing tone). A common cochlear origin and a continuity between the mechanisms of ipsilaterally induced adaptation and high‐level fatigue are suggested by the data.

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