School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Int J Audiol. 2011 Dec;50(12):857-65. doi: 10.3109/14992027.2011.605805. Epub 2011 Sep 22.
The aim of the present research was to investigate central auditory functioning in normal-hearing, solvent-exposed subjects compared to normal-hearing subjects without solvent exposure, with a comprehensive test battery of behavioural central auditory functioning procedures.
Forty-six normal-hearing, solvent-exposed subjects and 46 normal-hearing, control subjects were selected to participate in the study.
All subjects must present with normal hearing thresholds and absence of history of variables related to the onset of auditory dysfunction. Subjects were evaluated with a test battery comprising pure-tone audiometry (PTA), dichotic digits (DD), pitch pattern sequence (PPS), filtered speech (FS), random gap detection (RGD), masking level difference (MLD), and hearing-in-noise (HINT) tests.
Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were performed to compare the mean values of the dependent variables (results for DD, PPS, FS, RGD, MLD, and HINT) between solvent-exposed and control subjects. Age and average hearing thresholds (500-8000 Hz) were included in the analyses as covariates. Significant differences for DD, PPS, FS, and RGD results were found between groups.
This study provides further evidence of the central auditory dysfunction associated with solvent exposure.
本研究旨在通过一系列全面的行为中心听觉功能测试程序，比较正常听力溶剂暴露组与正常听力无溶剂暴露组受试者的中枢听觉功能。
选择 46 名正常听力溶剂暴露组和 46 名正常听力对照组受试者参与研究。
所有受试者均需表现出正常的听力阈值，且无听觉功能障碍相关变量的病史。采用纯音听力测试（PTA）、双音节词测试（DD）、音高模式序列测试（PPS）、滤波语音测试（FS）、随机间隔检测测试（RGD）、掩蔽级差测试（MLD）和噪声下言语识别测试（HINT）对受试者进行评估。
采用协方差分析（ANCOVA）比较溶剂暴露组和对照组受试者的依赖变量（DD、PPS、FS、RGD、MLD 和 HINT 的测试结果）的平均值。将年龄和平均听力阈值（500-8000Hz）作为协变量纳入分析。结果发现 DD、PPS、FS 和 RGD 测试结果在组间存在显著差异。
本研究进一步提供了溶剂暴露相关的中枢听觉功能障碍的证据。
