Frequency-Following Response (FFR) in Military Pilots.

 Good hearing in pilots, including central auditory skills, is critical for flight safety and the prevention of aircraft accidents. Pure tone audiometry alone may not be enough to assess hearing in the members of this population who, in addition to high noise levels, routinely face speech recognition tasks in non-ideal conditions.  To characterize the frequency-following response (FFR) of a group of military pilots compared with a control group.

Masking level difference among brazilian military personnel: a comparison between pilots and non-pilots.

Objectives: The aims of this study were to investigate auditory habits and binaural interaction among pilot and non-pilot military personnel from the Brazilian Air Force.

Design: A cross-sectional study using (1) an auditory habits questionnaire to outline the groups auditory profile and (2) the masking level difference test (MLD, Auditec, Saint Louis®) to evaluate and compare the groups.

Study Sample: Forty military male personnel aged between 30-40 years old, all with normal hearing, comprising 20 pilots in the study group (SG), and 20 non-pilots, not exposed to noise, in the control group (CG).