Aided Threshold Equalizing Noise Test

Abstract

The inner hair cells of the cochlea and/or neurons at certain places along the BM may be missing or functioning so poorly that a tone producing peak vibration in that region is detected by off- place (off frequency), those regions are called “dead regions” (DR). The most widely used methods for the detection of the dead region includes psychophysical tuning curve (PTC) and Threshold equalizing noise (TEN) test. But these methods are unable to detect a dead region in individuals with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss or sloping pattern of audiogram. To detect the dead region in these individuals, an alternative method was devised with the use of hearing aid. This can be termed as Aided TEN (ATEN) test. In the present study 31 participants were tested using the conventional TEN test and the results were compared with that of the thresholds obtained with that of the aided version of the TEN test. Results show the effectiveness of the aided version of TEN test over the conventional method while identifying dead regions in the above mentioned individuals.