A long accumulation of psychophysical and physiological evidence indicates that auditory fatigue has its locus of effect in the cochlea; transfer studies with negative or questionable results, and studies of cochlear chemistry and potentials with positive results all lead to the same conclusion. However, Galambo’s reports of inhibition through efferent stimulation taken together with his finding of changes in cochlear potentials corresponding to differences in attentiveness provide a basis for testing the existence of a central factor operative in auditory fatigue.
The present study was design to evaluate the possibility that a listener’s level of mental activity constitutes and adequate central factor. Subjects were presented with a 4000 cps, 40 dB SL or 90 dB SL tone for 3 minutes under conditions of a) a mental or b) reverie. Pre- and post-fatigue thresholds were measured with a switched (0.2 sec on, 0.2 sec off) tone. For low level (40 dB) fatigue the frequency of the test tone was 4000 cps and for high level (90 dB) fatigue, 5656 cps.
Subjects consistently showed grater temporary threshold shift and longer recovery time when the fatiguing tone was presented in the mental task condition. Results indicate a central factor in pure tone auditory fatigue. It is suggested that the degree of effect of a fatiguing tone is a function of the listener’s degree of mental activity during stimulation.
Conflicting reports regarding the influence of mental tasks on auditory fatigue have recently appeared in the literature. In the present study, 10 mal...
Eight males were exposed for three minutes to a 4000 cps fatigue tone at 40 dB SL. Each S was tested under four task-conditions: mental arithmetic (MA...
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