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Biomedical subjects

C A Champlin

Publications and source records attributed to C A Champlin.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

Method for detecting auditory steady-state potentials recorded from humans.

Auditory steady-state potentials were recorded from the scalp of adult humans. The stimuli were 100-microseconds clicks presented at a rate of 39.1/s. Four stimulus levels were used (-20, 0, 10, and 20 dB SL). The presence or absence of a response was determined by three frequency-domain methods and examiners. The frequency-domain methods were: magnitude-squared coherence (MSC), phase coherence (PC), and magnitude only (MO). The MSC method generally had the highest d' values, indicating that it was the most sensitive method for detecting responses. The hearing threshold predicted by the MSC method was the lowest, and it was within 4 dB of the behaviorally measured threshold for the click stimuli. Further, the amplitude of the response was significantly more variable than its phase, and no relation was found between the variability of the amplitude of the response and the amplitude of the noise. In summary, response detection methods that incorporate phase information (such as MSC and PC) should be chosen over methods which incorporate only amplitude information.

Acoustic Stimulation

Acoustic measurements of objective tinnitus.

Ear canal sound pressure levels were measured from a 38-year-old woman who had experienced objective tinnitus in her right ear for approximately 2 years. The tinnitus sounded like a series of "sighs" that were synchronous with her pulse rate. Because the level of the tinnitus fluctuated in a pulsing manner, it appeared to be of vascular origin. Psychoacoustically, the tinnitus behaved like a low-pass masker (cutoff frequency = 1.5 kHz) of about 40 dB SPL. This masking effect was manifested as a low-frequency hearing loss in the subject's right ear. A miniature microphone system was used to monitor the tinnitus before, during, and after a jugular-vein ligation. Because the cause of the tinnitus was only generally known, acoustically monitoring the sound as the jugular vein and/or its tributaries were systematically clamped and then released enabled the site of generation to be known exactly. By monitoring the tinnitus during surgery, the effectiveness of the corrective procedure could be immediately evaluated. Hearing sensitivity in the affected ear returned to normal limits following the elimination of the tinnitus. One year after the surgery, the tinnitus was barely audible to the woman, but only when she positioned her head a specific way. The level of the tinnitus measured in this head-turned condition was markedly lower than the level obtained preoperatively.

Adult

Reductions in overshoot during aspirin use.

The overshoot effect was measured before, during, and after the administration of a moderate dose of aspirin. Prior to the drug, detectability of the 6-ms, 3550-Hz signal was 5-11 dB worse when presented 2 ms after the onset of the 200-ms wideband masking noise than when presented 190 ms after masker onset. Following 4 days of aspirin use, detectability in the long-delay condition was unchanged from the predrug value, but (for four of the five subjects) detectability in the short-delay condition was improved by about 4-8 dB. Thus the overshoot effect was markedly reduced by aspirin because the drug partially counteracted the normally poor detectability for signals presented soon after masker onset. This paradoxical improvement in detectability was accompanied by an aspirin-induced loss in detectability of 5-16 dB for a 200-ms sample of that same signal presented in the quiet. Similar paradoxical effects have previously been obtained by inducing a temporary hearing loss with exposure to intense sound. It is presumed that the same basic mechanisms underlie the parallel outcomes. The so-called cochlear amplifier is discussed in this regard, and also the possibility that the known differences in those primary auditory fibers having high and low spontaneous rates may be involved. A supplementary experiment demonstrated that shifting audibility with either a wideband or a narrow-band background noise does not affect the overshoot effect in the same way as does aspirin or exposure to intense sound, further suggesting that the cochlear amplifier must be altered in order for overshoot to be diminished.

Acoustic Stimulation

Behavior of spontaneous otoacoustic emissions following intense ipsilateral acoustic stimulation.

Following presentation of brief, intense pure tones spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) were reduced in frequency and/or amplitude. The effects were highly tuned with exposures between 1/8 and 5/8 of an octave below the SOAE producing the maximum changes. Exposure frequencies above the SOAE had no effect. The degree of tuning observed depended upon the post-exposure time sampled, with sharpness maximal between 3 and 120 s post-exposure. The effects increased nonlinearly as exposure level and duration were increased. The recovery functions were biphasic, the first phase being rapid and non-monotonic over about 2 min, while the second phase was monotonic and slow, sometimes taking several hours. These data are consistent with changes in outer hair cell (OHC) function and support the hypothesis that OHC changes underlie behavioral temporary threshold shift (TTS).

Acoustic Stimulation

Reductions in overshoot following intense sound exposures.

Overshoot refers to the poorer detectability of brief signals presented soon after the onset of a masking noise compared to those presented after longer delays. In the present experiment, brief tonal signals were presented 2 or 190 ms following the onset of a broadband masker that was 200 ms in duration. These two conditions of signal delay were tested before and after a series of exposures to a tone intense enough to induce temporary threshold shift (TTS). The magnitude of the overshoot was reduced after the exposure when a TTS of at least 10 dB was induced, but not when smaller amounts of TTS were induced. The reduction in overshoot was due to a decrease in the masked thresholds with the 2-ms delay; masked thresholds with the 190-ms delay were not different pre- and post-exposure. The implication is that the mechanisms responsible for the normal overshoot effect are temporarily inactivated by the same stimulus manipulations that produce a mild exposure-induced hearing loss. Thus the result is the paradox that exposure to intense sounds can produce a loss of signal detectability in certain stimulus conditions and a simultaneous improvement in detectability in other stimulus conditions.

Acoustic Stimulation

Effects of intense pure tones on auditory temporal acuity.

Gap detection thresholds (GDTs) were obtained from human listeners before and after exposure to a brief 0.4- or 1.7-kHz tone. The temporary threshold shift (TTS) produced 2 min after an exposure was approximately 10 dB. GDT stimuli were octave-band noises centered at one of three frequencies: the exposure frequency, one-half octave above the exposure frequency or one octave above the exposure frequency. GDTs were obtained at 35, 55, and 75 dB SPL at each center frequency. GDT and TTS recovery were monitored at logarithmically-spaced time intervals after the exposures. Following the 1.7-kHz exposure, shifts in post-exposure GDT were only obtained with the low-level stimulus conditions--the magnitude of GDT shift was correlated with the size of the TTS, and the shifts in GDT and absolute threshold required similar amounts of time to recover. Significant post-exposure shifts in GDT were also observed following the 0.4-kHz exposure. However, shifts were found at frequencies where there was no measurable TTS, and they required longer periods of time to recover than did absolute threshold.

Auditory Fatigue