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Sound Intensity Level

Sound Intensity Level

Humans perceive sound by hearing. The human ear helps sound waves reach the brain, which then interprets the waves and creates the perception of hearing. The loudness of the environment in which a person is located determines whether they can distinguish between different sound sources.
The human ear can perceive an extensive range of sound intensity, necessitating the use of the logarithmic scale to define a physical quantity—the intensity level. It is a ratio of two intensities and...

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Echo

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The Cochlea

The Cochlea

The cochlea is a coiled structure in the inner ear that contains hair cells—the sensory receptors of the auditory system. Sound waves are transmitted to the cochlea by small bones attached to the eardrum called the ossicles, which vibrate the oval window that leads to the inner ear. This causes fluid in the chambers of the cochlea to move, vibrating the basilar membrane.

Sensation

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Sensory receptors are specialized neurons that respond to specific types of external stimuli, initiating the process known as sensation. This occurs when sensory input, such as light entering the eye, is detected by these receptors, causing chemical changes in the cells of the retina. These cells then convert the sensory stimulus into action potentials that are transmitted to the central nervous system, a process termed transduction.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 13, 2026

Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses

Behavioral Assessment of Hearing in 2 to 4 Year-old Children: A Two-interval, Observer-based Procedure Using Conditioned Play-based Responses

Published on: January 23, 2017

Infrasonic and low-frequency insert earphone hearing threshold.

Robert Kuehler¹, Thomas Fedtke¹, Johannes Hensel¹

¹Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Section 1.61-Sound in Air, Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany robert.kuehler@ptb.de, thomas.fedtke@ptb.de, johannes.hensel@ptb.de.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

|April 30, 2015

Summary

This study presents new hearing threshold data for low frequencies down to 2.5 Hz using a novel earphone. The findings are comparable to existing literature and useful for brain imaging calibration.

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Area of Science:

Audiology
Acoustics
Neuroscience

Background:

Accurate hearing threshold measurements are crucial for audiological assessments and auditory neuroscience research.
Existing equipment has limitations in generating precise low-frequency and infrasonic pure tones for hearing tests.

Purpose of the Study:

To present novel monaural hearing threshold data in the low-frequency and infrasonic range (2.5–125 Hz).
To introduce a newly developed insert-earphone sound source for precise auditory stimulus generation.
To provide data for calibrating stimuli in future brain imaging studies.

Main Methods:

Development of a new insert-earphone sound source capable of producing pure tones up to 130 dB SPL between 2 and 250 Hz with minimal harmonic distortion.
Determination of behavioral hearing thresholds in 18 otologically normal participants within the 2.5–125 Hz frequency range.
Utilizing a sound source designed for high precision and low distortion in the infrasonic and low-frequency spectrum.

Main Results:

The study successfully measured monaural hearing thresholds down to 2.5 Hz.
The developed insert-earphone source demonstrated the ability to generate pure tones with low harmonic distortion across the tested low-frequency range.
Median hearing thresholds obtained were found to be comparable to previously published data.

Conclusions:

The newly developed insert-earphone is effective for generating precise low-frequency auditory stimuli.
The presented hearing threshold data provide a valuable reference for the infrasonic and low-frequency range.
These findings will support stimulus calibration in subsequent brain imaging investigations of auditory processing.