The post-auricular muscle response: an objective electrophysiological method for evaluating hearing sensitivity

Post-auricular muscle responses (PAMRs) were recorded in sixteen adults with normal hearing and twenty adults with sensorineural hearing loss. Click stimuli were presented at 20 to 80 dB nHL via insert earphones. Only one ear was tested in hearing-impaired subjects, but normal-hearing subjects were tested monaurally and binaurally. PAMR amplitudes declined and latencies increased with decreasing click intensity. Both binaural stimulation and eye turn enhanced the PAMR. In hearing-impaired subjects, PAMR thresholds were correlated with audiometric thresholds for the eyes-turned condition. All normal-hearing subjects had PAMR when recording conditions were optimized and half had responses for the least optimal condition (20 dB nHL, monaural, eyes front). With eyes turned and monaural clicks at 35 dB nHL, the level widely used for infant hearing screening, most normal-hearing adults had a PAMR. Thus the PAMR is a robust response that may be a useful adjunct to ABR for objective hearing assessment.