Clinical Applications of the Temporary Threshold Shift

Abstract

Although the inherent characteristics of poststimulatory auditory fatigue have been studied for some time, it has not been until the last decade that interest has been shown in a relatively new method of measuring auditory threshold changes due to sound stimuli. A number of specific clinical techniques have been reported for discerning temporary shifts in threshold that occur during periods of sustained-tone stimulation. The results of studies carried out with two of these techniques have led to a number of interesting practical speculations that have been applied to the clinical evaluation of abnormal hearing. Dix, Hallpike, and Hood^1-5 have stressed two major factors which discriminate post-stimulatory fatigue from abnormal loudness level losses that occur during periods of tone stimulation. The first of these is that the amount of fatigue following a tone stimulus is dependent on the physical magnitude of the stimulus. However, changes in loudness level that occur