Influence of headphone position in pure-tone audiometry
Abstract
Pure-tone audiometry (measurement of absolute thresholds using pure tones) is the main test for the diagnosis of hearing loss. It can be achieved by using either air conduction (with headphones or loudspeakers) or bone conduction (by placing a vibrator on the mastoid bone behind the ear). The HeadPhone Transfer Function (HPTF) describes both the headphone response and the coupling to a listener's ear. Recent papers indicated that modifications of headphone position can lead to changes in HPTF, and that these spectral modifications can be audible. The aim of the present study is to determine whether the headphone placement over a listener's ears has an influence on pure-tone audiometric tests. Audiograms were performed several times on normal-hearing subjects, for different headphone positions (obtained by placing/removing the headphone over the listener's ears), the absolute thresholds measurements being repeated for each headphone position. The dispersions of absolute thresholds with and without modification of the headphone position were compared in order to determine whether the headphone positioning is an issue for audiometric tests.
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