The effect of intense and prolonged acoustical stimulation on the auditory sensitivity of guinea pigs.

Abstract

Employing the conditional respiratory reflex method, the auditory sensitivity of 7 guinea pigs was studied before, during, and after exposure for 110 hrs. to a tone of 1,000 d. v./sec. at 125 decibels above human threshold. A general loss of sensitivity to the eight octave-tones tested, ranging from 64 to 8192 d. v./sec, was found, the loss affecting all tones. Tests made at intervals up to 298 days after exposure revealed no recovery from this loss.