evaluating psychoacoustic measures for establishing presence of tinnitus

This article and any supplementary material should be cited as follows: Henry JA, McMillan GP, Thielman EJ, Galvez G, Zaugg TL, Porsov E, Silaski G. Evaluating psychoacoustic measures for establishing presence of tinnitus. J Rehabil Res Dev. 2013;50(4):573–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1682/JRRD.2012.05.0090

Slideshow ProjectDOI:10.1682/JRRD.2012.05.0090JSP

Evaluating psychoacoustic measures for establishing presence of tinnitus

James A. Henry, PhD; Garnett P. McMillan, PhD; Emily J. Thielman, MS; Gino Galvez, PhD;

Tara L. Zaugg, AuD; Edward Porsov, MS; Grayson Silaski, BSEE



• Aim– Develop and document defined test for detecting

presence/absence of tinnitus with high degree of confidence.

• Relevance– Veterans can claim tinnitus as “service-connected”

disability. – Currently, determining presence of tinnitus is based

on subjective reporting—objective measures do not exist.



Method

• Used computer-automated, self-guided tinnitus evaluation system to conduct 3 phases of testing to compare psychoacoustic measures of tinnitus between participants with vs without tinnitus. – Phase 1 measures: loudness match, pitch match,

minimum masking level, residual inhibition, Békésy, and forced-choice double staircase.

– Phases 2 and 3 measures: chosen based on Phase 1 results.



Method

Podiometer (“Pod”) used by participants to respond to automated testing by turning encoder dial and depressing response buttons. Pod connects to computer and is hardwired to insert earphones.



Results

• Number of tests and time of testing decreased during each successive phase.

• Differences were seen between groups:– Most notably, higher low-frequency loudness

matches and higher median pitch matches were observed for participants with tinnitus.



Conclusion

• Study did not result in a defined test for detecting presence/absence of tinnitus.– But data did reveal significant differences in

responses between groups with vs without tinnitus.

• Results suggest that further efforts can produce a defined psychoacoustic test battery for identifying tinnitus.

evaluating psychoacoustic measures for establishing presence of tinnitus

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