Shiver-Audiometry in the Conditioned Guinea-Pig (Simplified Anderson-Wedenberg Test)

Abstract

The hearing test of Anderson and Wedenberg has been simplified and called Shiver-audiometry, in reference to its characteristics. Easy to conduct and economical, it has proved highly versatile, as the experiments carried out on albino and pigmented guinea-pigs have demonstrated. It has actually made it possible to identify really normally-hearing animals, and to establish that the albino guinea-pig has, in the experimental conditions adopted, a greater hearing capacity than the pigmented one; moreover it has revealed that the albino guinea-pig has greater cochlear sensitivity to acoustic hyper stimulation. Shiver-audiometry has proved important in the dynamic study of hearing in experiments of short and medium duration, in that it indicates the location and degree of the lesions, as well as their evolution. For these reasons, it has been most useful in directing morphological research towards the more damaged cochlear sectors, for instance during intoxication (kanamycin) or the aftermath of an acoustic trauma or of endotympanic treatment with saturated sodium chloride solution. Owing to these qualities, Shiver-audiometry appears to be a useful complement to experimzntal otologic research.