School of Applied Social Sciences, University Campus Suffolk, Ipswich, UK.
Int J Audiol. 2013 Sep;52(9):596-605. doi: 10.3109/14992027.2013.796530. Epub 2013 May 29.
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).
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.
Participants were 83 adults (57 impaired-hearing and 26 good-hearing, age 20-75 years).
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.
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.
本研究旨在开发一种用户友好的测量患者阈上听力的方法，适用于临床研究。这些测试的最终产物是一个图形轮廓，概括了绝对阈值、频率选择性和在频谱范围内（0.25-6 kHz）的压缩特性。
一组合成的三种心理物理听力测试包括绝对阈值、频率选择性和压缩的测量。采用自动、提示、单间隔、自适应跟踪程序。测试结果被整理并用于为每个听众生成一个易于可视化的“轮廓”。
参与者为 83 名成年人（57 名听力受损，26 名听力良好，年龄 20-75 岁）。
听众很好地耐受了测试。在平均 74 分钟的测试时间内（46-120 分钟）获得了单耳轮廓。个体测量的可变性较低。在正常和听力受损的听众之间以及听力受损的听众之间观察到了显著差异。观察到了仅通过阈值测量无法预测的压缩和频率选择性的定性差异。
听力轮廓提供了有关阈上听力表现的信息，并且信息可以通过图形显示轻松访问。需要进一步开发才能在临床环境中常规使用。
