Age-dependence of the neural auditory thresholds of albino and pigmented guinea pigs.

Short-latency brain-stem responses of albino and pigmented guinea pigs were examined for evidence of age-dependence of the auditory threshold. Both groups exhibited a loss of hearing correlated with age. Moreover, albinos had significantly lower auditory thresholds than pigmented guinea pigs of the corresponding age group. A further difference between the two groups lay in the degree of which sensitivity declined with age; hearing loss in albinos was only about half that in pigmented animals.