The locus of short duration auditory fatigue or "adaptation".

Abstract

Auditory adaptation (adtion.), defined as a reversible shift in threshold following very mild acoustic stimulation, was distinguished from true auditory fatigue by 4 criteria: (a) the non-cumulative effect of stimulus duration; (b) the temporal course of return to normal threshold following stimulation; (c) the relative frequency region of max. threshold shift following pure tone stimulation; and (d) the shape of the curve of loudness (recruitment). This expt. sought to throw light upon where, in the auditory system, adtion. occurs. By the technique of simultaneous binaural loudness balancing between 1 normal ear undergoing a threshold shift as a result of a preceding ading. stimulus, it was possible to demonstrate an accelerated growth of recruitment in the adapted ear. The intimate temporal relation between adtion. and recruitment, the latter distinctly allied to the organ of Corti, was thought to point to the peripheral organ, not the nervous system, as the site of the recently-discovered phenomenon of auditory adtion.