Normative thresholds in the 8- to 20-kHz range as a function of age

Abstract

Using a prototype high-frequency audiometer, auditory thresholds in the 8- to 20-kHz range were obtained from 240 subjects ranging in age from 10-60 years. These measurements were obtained in interest of developing a normative database for frequencies above 8 kHz, and to evaluate intersubject variability as a function of age. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant effects of frequency, age, and sex, and a significant frequency-by-age interaction. The largest changes in sensitivity with age occurred between 40 to 59 years. Below approximately 15 kHz, the intersubject variability of threshold estimates increased as a function of both age and frequency. Further analysis revealed that the age-related changes in variability were related to absolute thresholds rather than to age per se. When data are converted to dB HL (relative to the youngest group tested), the region of maximum hearing loss shifts to lower frequencies with increasing age, and threshold shifts with age are greatest in the 13- to 17-kHz range.

Hearing threshold for pure tones above 20 kHz

“…6, their absolute thresholds (open squares) rose sharply as the frequency of the tone increased from 14 kHz to 20 kHz. It agrees well with the previous studies [5,8,10,13]. Between 20 kHz and 24 kHz, the increment of threshold was rather small especially in Listener 1.…”

“…Therefore, it would be valuable to evaluate the influences in terms of the absolute threshold of hearing. Absolute thresholds for pure tones have been studied by many research groups [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. These studies show that the absolute threshold starts to increase sharply when the signal frequency exceeds about 15 kHz; it reaches 80 dB SPL at the frequency of 20 kHz [5,8,10,13].…”

Processamento auditivo e audiometria de altas freqüências em escolares de São Paulo

“…Due to these findings, data were grouped by gender and ear. Stelmachowicz et al (1989) suggest, however, that there are differences between hearing thresholds regarding gender and ear.…”

Utility of Monaural Spectral Cues Is Enhanced in the Presence of Cues to Sound-Source Lateral Angle

“…The hearing of each participant was assessed by measuring his or her absolute thresholds for 1-, 2-, 4-, 8-, 10-, 12-, 14-, and 16-kHz pure tones using a two-interval forced-choice task combined with the two-down one-up adaptive procedure (see Watson et al 2000 for details). For no participant did any threshold exceed the relevant agespecific norm (Corso 1963;Stelmachowicz et al 1989) by more than one standard deviation.…”