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Updated: Jun 29, 2026

A Low Cost Setup for Behavioral Audiometry in Rodents
Published on: October 16, 2012
Noise level, inner hair cell damage, audiometric features, and equal-energy hypothesis
1Department of Audiology, Karolinska Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
Abstract:
Rabbits were exposed to 2- to 7-kHz noise either for a short duration at a high sound-pressure level (15 or 30 min at 115 dB SPL), or a long duration at a low level (512 h at 85 dB SPL). The high-level exposure produced a hearing loss in the frequency range 2-6 kHz, whereas the low-level exposure gave maximum hearing loss at 12-20 kHz. The 115-dB exposure caused significantly more damage to inner hair cells than the 85-dB exposure. The implications of the present results for evaluating audiograms, equal-energy hypothesis, risk criteria, and subjective auditory features are pointed out.
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