Temporal characteristics of the acoustic reflex.
Temporal aspects of the acoustic reflex response were estimated for normally hearing subjects, subjects with noise-induced hearing loss and children with sensorineural hearing impairment. Onset latency and rise/fall times of admittance change were measured from the averaged responses (8 presentations) to tone bursts of 250 ms durations and 10 ms rise/fall time. Tone burst frequency was varied from 500 to 4 000 Hz. No differences between groups were observed for onset responses. Compared to the data from normally hearing subjects, the offset responses were slightly longer for subjects with noise-induced hearing loss and were considerably longer for hearing-impaired children. Due to the prolongation seen for noise-exposed subjects, it is difficult to interpret these data in terms of site of lesion. Still, the differences between hearing-impaired children and normal subjects suggest that acoustic reflex offset latency may be a useful screening device.
D000328:Adult; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002648:Child; D006317:Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D012022:Reflex, Acoustic; D013997:Time Factors