title: Individual and level-dependent differences in masking for adults with normal and impaired hearing.
abstract: Simultaneous, on-frequency masking is commonly assumed to be linear with increasing noise intensity. However, some evidence suggests that, expressed in terms of signal-to-noise ratio changes with background level changes, masking slopes can vary from 0 dB/dB. These results and evidence from a large sample of subjects with normal and impaired hearing demonstrate level-dependent changes in masking, large individual differences in masking among subjects with similar thresholds in quiet, and significant correlations of masking slope with other estimates of auditory function measured in the same backgrounds.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Medical University of South Carolina, 135 Rutledge Avenue, MSC 550, Charleston, South Carolina 29425-5500, USA. amy@shea-horwitz.com
authors.forename: Amy R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Horwitz
authors.forename: Jayne B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Ahlstrom
authors.forename: Judy R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Dubno
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio