Cornelius P. Goetzinger

Extra-high frequency hearing loss and hyperlipidemia.

Auditory thresholds in the extra-high frequency (EHF) range (10-18 kHz) were determined for twenty normal and twenty hyperlipidemic subjects. Subjects all passed a standard frequency auditory screening; all were otologically normal; all were aged between 20 and 50 years; none had a positive history of noise exposure. Modest, although significant, relationships were found between serum lipid levels and EHF acuity. Right ear thresholds and thresholds at 14 kHz showed the larger differences between the normals and hyperlipidemics

The effects of age, sex, hearing loss and water temperature on caloric nystagmus.

Seventy five subjects ranging in age from 18 to 87 years received warm and cool caloric irrigations. Nystagmus was recorded and latency, duration, amplitude. frequency and speed of the slow component were measured. The effects of age, hearing loss, sex and water temperature were evaluated. Significant differences were found in cool water durations. Significant differences were found as a function of age for all parameters in warm water calorics. Response duration was not found to be significantly correlated to speed of the slow component in cool calorics.

Auditory Assessment of Cleft Palate Adults

The study was designed to obtain data relative to hearing level and discrimination in cleft palate adults. The results indicated that the subjects as a group have hearing levels within normal limits and that their auditory discrimination is normal. Furthermore over 50% of the subjects showed evidence of previous middle ear infection. However, there were only two cases of active middle ear pathology. The findings suggests that middle ear infection in cleft palates runs its course before adolescence.

A Comparison of Sensitized Words and Sentences for Distinguishing Nonperipheral Auditory Changes as a Function of Aging

Summary Several investigators have reported that changes in central auditory processing develop with advancing age. The central auditory changes accompanying aging are not obvious on routine speech discrimination tests but the weaknesses are evident on some distorted speech discrimination tasks. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the effectiveness of various difficult speech discrimination tasks for identifying the central auditory differences between younger and older adults. Auditory discrimination scores for frequency selectively filtered words and periodically interrupted sentences were determined for 32 normal hearing adults under age forty and 32 normal hearing adults over forty. Discrimination of the distorted words was not affected by the age of the subjects but distorted sentence discrimination was reduced in the older group. A dichotically presented competing message masker did not result in a larger divergence in discrimination between age groups, nor did it produce an ear difference.

A Study of Three Tests of Central Function with Normal Hearing Subjects

Summary The purpose of the study was to investigate the cerebral dominance effect as reported by several investigators. A group of subjects with normal hearing were administered three tests purported to give some evidence of higher level auditory function. The tests were the Kimura digits, the Katz SSW and the Dirks filtered PBs tests. The results indicated a significant right ear dominance effect for the Kimura and Katz tests. No difference between ears was found for the Dirks test. The findings could suggest that demonstration of ear dominance is test dependent. However, additional research is needed to resolve the issue.

A Study of the Order Effects on Tracings Made with a Békésy-Type Audiometer

The effects of fixed frequency tracing orders at 4000 cps upon thresholds in quiet, in noise and in recovery after noise exposure were determined on a Bekesy audiometer with 32 normal hearing adult subjects. The results showed that:1. In the pulsed/continuous tracing order in quiet the difference in threshold sensitivity was non-significant. Conversely, in the continuous/pulsed tracing order in quiet the pulsed trace threshold was significantly more acute.2. Order effects were present also in the noise tracings. Post-rest pulsed tones were more acute than pre-rest continuous tones. However, the converse was not true.3. Tracing order effects were operating in the recovery thresholds. Postrest pulsed recovery thresholds were more acute than pre-rest continuous recovery thresholds. Also, initial thresholds in quiet appeared to have a significant effect on subsequent recovery thresholds for continuous tone tracings. This finding did not obtain for pulskd tones.4. When initial thresholds in quiet were compared...

Masking and bone conduction. A case report.

The possibility of pseudo-thresholds and pseudo-discrimination scores in an ear with almost a total, perceptive loss of hearing is a constant danger, particularly when the contralateral ear is conductively impaired and manifests hypersensitive bone conduction.By applying basic principles of masking and bone conduction the pseudo-characteristics of the severely, perceptively deafened ear could be demonstrated. The importance of applying masking when less than a 40 db difference exists between ears by air conduction, especially when the levels at which measurements are conducted exceed 55–60 db, is brought into focus.