Effects of unilateral eye closure on middle ear muscle contractions.

Middle ear muscle contractions (MEMCs) are most commonly considered a response to high-level acoustic stimuli. However, MEMCs have also been observed in the absence of sound, either as a response to somatosensory stimulation or in concert with other motor activity. The relationship between MEMCs and non-acoustic sources is unclear.

Population-based age adjustment tables for use in occupational hearing conservation programs.

In occupational hearing conservation programmes, age adjustments may be used to subtract expected age effects. Adjustments used in the U.S.

Generalizability of clinically measured acoustic reflexes to brief sounds.

Middle ear muscle contractions (MEMC) can be elicited in response to high-level sounds, and have been used clinically as acoustic reflexes (ARs) during evaluations of auditory system integrity. The results of clinical AR evaluations do not necessarily generalize to different signal types or durations. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the likelihood of observing MEMC in response to brief sound stimuli (tones, recorded gunshots, noise) in adult participants (N = 190) exhibiting clinical ARs and excellent hearing sensitivity.

Acoustic reflexes are common but not pervasive: evidence using a diagnostic middle ear analyser.

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine whether acoustic reflexes are pervasive (i.e. known with 95% confidence to be observed in at least 95% of people) by examining the frequency of occurrence using a friction-fit diagnostic middle ear analyser.

Acoustic reflexes are common but not pervasive: evidence from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999-2012.

Objective: To determine whether acoustic reflexes are pervasive (i.e. sufficiently prevalent to provide 95% confidence of at least 95% prevalence) and might be invoked in damage-risk criteria (DRC) and health hazard assessments (HHA) for impulsive noise.

Stimulus and transducer effects on threshold.

Objective: This study examined differences in thresholds obtained under Sennheiser HDA200 circumaural earphones using pure tone, equivalent rectangular noise bands, and 1/3 octave noise bands relative to thresholds obtained using Telephonics TDH-39P supra-aural earphones.

Design: Thresholds were obtained via each transducer and stimulus condition six times within a 10-day period.

Study Sample: Forty-nine adults were selected from a prior study to represent low, moderate, and high threshold reliability.

Short-term variability of pure-tone thresholds obtained with TDH-39P earphones.

Objective: To estimate the short-term variability and correlates of variability in pure-tone thresholds obtained using audiometric equipment designed for occupational use, and to examine the justification for excluding 8 kHz as a mandatory threshold in occupational hearing conservation programs.

Method: Pure-tone thresholds and other hearing-related tests (e.g.