Audiologic findings in presbycusis.
Presbycusic Ss (N: 64) were studied using tests for cochlear functions (SISI test, Metz test, delta F threshold, remote masking), for retrocochlear involvement (tone-decay test), and for central auditory impairment (tonal binaural MLD, ipsi- vs contralateral acoustic reflex). Recruitment was present in about half the cases; remote masking (supposed a test of stiffness of the cochlear partition) was almost always pathological; tone decay rarely was abnormal; tonal MLD and/or acoustic reflexometry yielded pathologic values in more than half of the Ss. Tonal test patterns demonstrated that in presbycusis there is a frequent alteration of the monaural and binaural analytic processes of intensity, frequency and phase; a constant increase of stiffness in the hydrodynamic system of acoustic energy transmission; and, sometimes, an increase of resistance of neural transmission.
D000368:Aged; D001299:Audiometry; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003051:Cochlea / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008526:Medulla Oblongata / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D010897:Pitch Discrimination / Q000502:physiology; D011149:Pons / Q000503:physiopathology; D011304:Presbycusis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology