Frequency selectivity as a potential measure of noise damage susceptibility

Abstract

The notched-noise procedure of Patterson (1974, Journal of the Accoustical Society of America, 55, 802-809; 1976, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 59, 640-654) was employed in revealing changes in auditory frequency selectivity (FS) in noise-exposed industrial workers in manufacturing plants in which noise levels in the working environment exceeded 90 dB(A). With 4 kHz as the test frequency, both threshold and FS measures were applied to three groups of non-exposed young adults (total N = 61) for reference values and to workers in three different factories, some ('noise-exposed') working in noise levels over 90 dB(A) (total N = 222). In another study involving 185 workers only the FS test was repeated after a work session, and the results are reported on 31 who worked in high noise levels. Pre-work-shift data showed that when thresholds were better than 30-dB HL most FS values were 10 dB or more, while subjects with hearing threshold levels beyond that showed reduced FS. Two post-work-shift studies of 144 ears of the noise-exposed workers showed significant deleterious changes in both thresholds and FS but the relationships were different in the two studies. The findings indicate that the notched-noise test is sensitive to noise-induced auditory damage, even after a single work-shift. Attractive features of the procedure are that it reduces the need for a quiet test environment and that it can be more resistant to testee manipulation or threshold 'learning' effects, often seen in industrial audiometric testing.

Portable Automated Rapid Testing (PART) for auditory assessment: Validation in a young adult normal-hearing population

“…The notched-noise method ( Patterson, 1976 ; Moore and Glasberg, 1990 ) evaluates the detection of a tone presented in competition with noise either with or without a spectral notch around the target frequency. This test allows the evaluation not only of peripheral frequency selectivity but also frequency processing efficiency ( Patterson, 1976 ; Moore and Glasberg, 1990 ; Stone et al , 1992 ; Bergman et al , 1992 ). To address auditory scene analysis, including speech and binaural processing, spatial release from masking (SRM; Marrone et al , 2008 ; Gallun et al , 2013 ; Jakien et al , 2017 ; Jakien and Gallun, 2018 ) was assessed using the coordinate response measure (CRM) corpus ( Bolia et al , 2000 ).…”

Portable Automated Rapid Testing (PART) for auditory assessment: Validation in a young adult normal-hearing population

“…The notched-noise method (Patterson, 1976;Moore & Glasberg, 1990) evaluates the detection of a tone presented in competition with noise either with or without a spectral notch around the target frequency. This test allows the evaluation not only of peripheral frequency selectivity but also frequency processing efficiency (Patterson, 1976;Moore & Glasberg, 1990;Stone et al, 1992;Bergman et al, 1992). To address auditory scene analysis in the context of speech and binaural listening, spatial release from masking (SRM; Marrone et al, 2008;Gallun et al, 2013;Jakien et al, 2017; was assessed using the Coordinate Response Measure (CRM) corpus (Bolia et al, 2000).…”

Auditory filter nonlinearity in mild/moderate hearing impairment

“…Several studies have also tried to correlate the frequency selective ability of the ear with the absolute threshold (Bergman, et al, 1992;Glasberg and Moore, 1986;Laroche, et al, 1992;Lutman, et al, 1991;Tyler, et al, 1982). Generally, selectivity decreases with increasing hearing loss, at least for losses above 30 -40 dB HL.…”