title: Operant methods for mouse psychoacoustics.
abstract: Tone detection thresholds for a 10-kHz tone in NMRI mice were determined in psychoacoustic experiments using both a constant-stimuli procedure and a two-down/one-up adaptive-tracking procedure in the same subjects and applying identical threshold criteria (70.7% response probability). Constant-stimuli thresholds were on average 24 dB lower than adaptive-tracking thresholds, and there was a trend indicating that constant-stimuli thresholds were less variable than adaptive-tracking thresholds. Furthermore, in the constant-stimuli procedure the number of trials constituting the psychometric function could be reduced from 100 to 50 trials without a large loss of accuracy of threshold determination. In the constant-stimuli procedure, the threshold value was affected by the threshold criteria. The lowest and least variable constant-stimuli thresholds were obtained by applying signal detection theory and a criterion of d' = 1. Thus, the constant-stimuli procedure in combination with signal detection theory appears to be better suited than the adaptive-tracking procedure to determine auditory sensory thresholds.
authors.affiliation: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Karin B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Klink
authors.forename: Garnet
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bendig
authors.forename: Georg M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Klump
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice / Q000502:physiology*; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D011594:Psychometrics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012684:Sensory Thresholds; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological