title: Acquisition of auditory profiles for good and impaired hearing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to develop a user-friendly way of measuring patients' threshold and supra-threshold hearing, with potential for application in clinical research. The end-product of these tests is a graphical profile summarizing absolute threshold, frequency selectivity, and compression characteristics across a spectrum of frequencies (0.25-6 kHz).
  
  
  METHODS
  A battery of three psychophysical hearing tests consisted of measures of absolute threshold, frequency selectivity, and compression. An automated, cued, single-interval, adaptive tracking procedure was employed. The tests results were collated and used to generate a readily visualized 'profile' for each listener.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were 83 adults (57 impaired-hearing and 26 good-hearing, age 20-75 years).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Listeners tolerated the tests well. Single-ear profiles were obtained in an average of 74 minutes testing time (range 46-120 minutes). The variability of individual measurements was low. Substantial differences between normal and impaired listeners and also among the impaired listeners were observed. Qualitative differences in compression and frequency-selectivity were seen that could not be predicted by threshold measurements alone.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The hearing profiles are informative with respect to supra-threshold hearing performance and the information is easily accessible through the graphical display. Further development is required for routine use in a clinical context.
authors.affiliation: School of Applied Social Sciences, University Campus Suffolk, Ipswich, UK. w.lecluyse@ucs.ac.uk
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lecluyse
authors.forename: Christine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Don
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: McFerran
authors.forename: Ray
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Meddis
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult