Is the audiologic status of professional musicians a reflection of the noise exposure in classical orchestral music?

The sound in classical orchestral music is louder than noise emissions allowed by national rules in industry. We wanted to assess the audiologic status of professional musicians at different ages of their careers and to look for a coherence of declined hearing ability and the sound emissions in order to substantiate advices for hearing protection and occupational medicine in musicians. Data from questionnaires (anamnestic data on sound exposure in profession and leisure times, use of hearing protection, self-evaluation of hearing function and hearing deficits), audiometric data and amplitudes of OAE were evaluated from 109 professional musicians aged 30-69 years from three major German orchestras and from 110 students of an academy of music (aged 11-19 years).

The cochleogram of the guinea pig.

The cochleogram is an important tool to relate properties of the cochlea (e.g. hair cell loss, damaged hair cells) to their position in the cochlear turns, to calculate the average hair cell density, and to measure the length of the whole cochlea.

Frequency-specific cochlear damage in guinea pig after exposure to different types of realistic industrial noise.

For the causal evaluation of occupational hearing damage it is important to identify definitely the noise source. Here we tested, whether recordings of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) in awake guinea pigs can distinguish the effects of different industrial noises. Six groups of 12 animals each were investigated before and over four months after a single 2 h exposure to specific, played-back industrial noise as well as before and for 2 months after impulse noise exposure.

Effects of discotheque music on audiometric results and central acoustic evoked neuromagnetic responses.

Audiograms and auditory evoked magnetic fields (AEFs) were observed in young male and female adults at different ages before and after being exposed to discotheque music for 4 hours. Sound pressure levels (SPLs) ranged from 95 dB (SPL) up to 130 dB (SPL). After exposure, subjects had temporary threshold shifts up to 20-25 dB, which almost disappeared after 2 hours.