title: Masked auditory thresholds in three species of birds, as measured by the auditory brainstem response (L).
abstract: Auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) were recorded in adult budgerigars, canaries, and zebra finches in quiet and in three levels of white noise for tone stimuli between 1 and 4 kHz. Similar to behavioral results, masked ABR thresholds increased linearly with increasing noise levels. When the three species are considered together, ABR-derived CRs were higher than behavioral CRs by 18-23 dB between 2 and 4 kHz and by about 30 dB at 1 kHz. This study clarifies the utility of using ABRs for estimating masked auditory thresholds in natural environmental noises in species that cannot be tested behaviorally.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. Noirot@student.ulg.ac.be
authors.forename: Isabelle C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Noirot
authors.forename: Elizabeth F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Brittan-Powell
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dooling
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D001717:Birds / Q000502:physiology*; D002171:Canaries / Q000502:physiology; D004777:Environment; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D046369:Finches / Q000502:physiology; D046408:Melopsittacus / Q000502:physiology; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D013018:Sound Spectrography