Quiet and masked brief-tone audiometry in subjects with normal hearing and with noise-induced hearing loss

Twenty subjects with normal hearing and 20 with noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) were tested with brief-tone audiometry at 500 and 4000 Hz in both quiet and masked conditions. The two tone durations used were 20 and 500 msec. The masker was a continuous white noise at 90 dB SPL. Results are consistent with other studies in that subjects with NIHL showed less temporal integration than normals. The frequency effect was found both in normals and in the hearing-impaired. The discrepancy of results on frequency effect found in the literature was discussed. Also, results suggest that suprathreshold measurement of temporal integration with the masking technique deserves further study.