Publication Date

1986

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Lankford, James E.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Communicative Disorders

LCSH

Audiometry; Evoked response

Abstract

The effect of transducer type on the auditory brainstem response (ABR) using suprathreshoId rarefaction click stimuli was investigated. The transducers utilized were a standard electrodynamic headphone (TDH-39P) and an insert earphone (ER-3A/300 ohm from Etymotic Research). Subjects were 10 adult females with normal hearing sensitivity and unobstructed ear canals. The ABR waveforms were examined with regard to the absolute latency of waves I> III, and V; absolute amplitude of waves I, III> and V; and the repeatability of the latency and amplitude values over five trials within a single test session. Additiona1ly» subjects filled out a questionnaire where they rank ordered the transducers with regard to comfort/preference. Results of the three-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated no significant interactions for the latency and amplitude data

0.01). With regard to the latency data* there were two significant main effects. These were the main effect for transducer type (p < 0.001) and main effect for wavelets (p < 0.001). No significant difference across trials was observed. An examination of the mean latency data indicated that in general the insert earphone prolonged the latency of all ABR components by 0.80 milliseconds (msec) when compared to the TDH-39P headphone. With regard to the amplitude data* there was no significant difference across trials (p > 0.10). Additionally* there was no main effect for transducer type

0.10) or a main effect for wavelet (p > 0.10). Absolute amplitude was highly variable within and across subjects and treatments. Lastly* all subjects (10 out of 10) preferred the insert earphone in terms of comfort when compared to the TDH-39P headphone.

Comments

Bibliography: pages [75]-80.

Extent

v, 80 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

Download

Share

COinS