QUANTITATIVE DETERMINATION OF HEARING TO AUDIOMETRIC FREQUENCIES IN THE ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAM: A Preliminary Report

Abstract

THE DETERMINATION of hearing loss in children under the age of 5 has invariably posed a problem to the otologist. Tests utilized have mainly been on a qualitative basis with usually a presumptive conclusion, at best, that the child does or does not hear. The stimulus to the sense organ of hearing has varied from percussive sounds in the very young child, which might produce a reflex blink, jump, or twitch, to the "learned" response to the spoken word in the older child, who might turn his head in the direction of sound. Objective methods of determining threshold hearing acuity, without the cooperation of the patient, have recently been reported in the literature and ably summarized by Utley.¹ These attempts have met with varying results and will be briefly touched upon in this preliminary report. Utilizing a Western Electric 2 A (battery-operated) audiometer as a pure-tone stimulus for testing,