Psychoacoustic Characteristics of Prepulse Gap in Tinnitus Patients: A Preliminary Study to Develop an Objective Test Detecting Tinnitus / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to observe whether there are differences in detecting ability of pre-pulse gaps between tinnitus patients and normal subjects. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Ten tinnitus patients and eight normal subjects were recruited. Fifty stimuli composed of a background noise and a pulse noise were presented to the subjects. For certain stimuli, a short gap preceding the pulse noise was inserted but for others, no gaps were inserted. The two groups were subjected to a gap lasting 300 and 200 msec. The subjects were then asked if they detected the gap during the stimulus and the number of correct answers were counted. RESULTS: In the tinnitus patient group, the number of correct answers for gap-stimuli detection was significantly smaller when the gap was shortened to 200 msec. In the control group, however, there was only a slight difference in the score. When the length of the gap was shortened to 200 msec, the score significantly decreased in 50% of the tinnitus patients whereas the score increased in only 12% of the control group. CONCLUSION: The ability to detect pre-pulse gaps is affected by tinnitus in humans just as in the animal models.