Personality and vascular responses as predictors of temporary threshold shifts after noise exposure

The relationship among a personality measure, peripheral vascular measures, and audiometric indexes of susceptibility to noise-induced hearing loss were studied. Seventy-four male human subjects were selected based upon their responses to a self-report measure of coronary-prone behaviors. Coronary-prone, nonprone, and median scores with normal hearing were included in the study. The audiometric measures were 4 kHz pure-tone thresholds, 4 kHz acoustic reflex thresholds, and thresholds of octave masking. Subjects were exposed to 5 min of either 110 dB SPL or 20 dB SPL white noise designated loud and soft noise, respectively. Temporary threshold shifts were assessed at three intervals after the noise exposure (0.25, 2, and 10 min). Blood pressure was assessed before the noise exposure. Digital and cephalic vasoconstriction were measured throughout the procedures. The results indicated that coronary-prone persons were significantly more likely to fail the pure-tone screening but did not differ from others on any additional measure. Temporary threshold shifts were negatively correlated with resting level blood pressure, vasoconstriction, and thresholds of octave masking.