title: A review of the history, development and application of auditory weighting functions in humans and marine mammals.
abstract: This document reviews the history, development, and use of auditory weighting functions for noise impact assessment in humans and marine mammals. Advances from the modern era of electroacoustics, psychophysical studies of loudness, and other related hearing studies are reviewed with respect to the development and application of human auditory weighting functions, particularly A-weighting. The use of auditory weighting functions to assess the effects of environmental noise on humans-such as hearing damage-risk criteria-are presented, as well as lower-level effects such as annoyance and masking. The article also reviews marine mammal auditory weighting functions, the development of which has been fundamentally directed by the objective of predicting and preventing noise-induced hearing loss. Compared to the development of human auditory weighting functions, the development of marine mammal auditory weighting functions have faced additional challenges, including a large number of species that must be considered, a lack of audiometric information on most species, and small sample sizes for nearly all species for which auditory data are available. The review concludes with research recommendations to address data gaps and assumptions underlying marine mammal auditory weighting function design and application.
authors.affiliation: National Marine Mammal Foundation, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, Suite 200, San Diego, California 92106, USA.
authors.forename: Dorian S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Houser
authors.affiliation: Speech and Hearing Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yost
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Science, University at Buffalo, 510 Kimball Tower, Buffalo, New York 14214, USA.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Burkard
authors.affiliation: United States Navy Marine Mammal Program, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific, Code 71510, 53560 Hull Street, San Diego, California 92152, USA.
authors.forename: James J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Finneran
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marine Sciences, Long Marine Laboratory, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California 95060, USA.
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Reichmuth
authors.affiliation: National Marine Mammal Foundation, 2240 Shelter Island Drive, Suite 200, San Diego, California 92106, USA.
authors.forename: Jason
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mulsow
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000266:history / Q000379:methods; D006309:Hearing; D006317:Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced / Q000209:etiology* / Q000266:history / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008144:Loudness Perception; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D019986:Persons with Hearing Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D010898:Pitch Perception; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013045:Species Specificity