APPLICATION OF THE AUDITORY BRAINSTEM RESPONSE FOR SCALING IMPULSIVE AND CONTINUOUS NOISE

Kochanek K (1), Zera J (2,3), Pilka A (1), Mlynski R (2), Skarzynski P (1).

(1) Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, Warsaw, Poland; (2) Central Institute of Labour Protection – National Research Institute, Warsaw, Poland; (3) Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, Warsaw, Poland.

The aim of the work was to test whether it is possible to scale the impulsive noise and continuous noise by equivalent wave V latency or thresholds in the auditory brainstem responses (ABRs). A forward masking paradigm was applied in which a 4-kHz tone pip was  used to evoke the ABR. The tone pip was masked by the preceding 201-ms or 501-ms interval of click trains or band-pass noise. Effect of masking was measured for click/noise SPL varied in 10-dB steps. Masking click trains differed in number of clicks presented in a range from 50 clicks/s (Δt = 20ms) to 10 clicks/s (Δt = 100ms). Bands of continuous noise ranged in their center frequency from 250 Hz up to 4000 Hz. Results allowed for a comparison of masking effect of impulsive noise and that of continuous noise.

E-mail: k.kochanek@ifps.org.pl