Personal Computer-Based Audiometry

Wesley Jackson , Michael Merzenich

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Brain Plasticity Inc., San Francisco, CA 94108 Dept. of Physiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94143 Email contact: wes.jackson@brainplasticity.com

http://kaywa.me/rold4

Introduction
Can you accurately and reliably measure someones hearing online?
We adapted the Bksy audiometer, a standard audiometric method, for online measurement of hearing thresholds. However, complications in useability and task learning motivated us to create a novel method. We designed a novel, multiple-interval staircase method (MIS) to be more engaging and ensure user consistency to correct for uncontrolled test environments. We compared the ability of these online tests to measure relative hearing thresholds against a clinical audiometer and assessed their retest reliability.

A. Bksy method
User maintains loudness of tone sweep at minimum audible level.
If you CAN hear the beeps, HOLD DOWN the SPACEBAR!
Decrease amplitude Time Increase frequency

Results
How did we measure relative hearing loss?
The frequency that could be heard at the lowest amplitude is an individuals most sensitive hearing threshold (0 dB). Negative dB values indicate how much louder the other frequecies had to be played to be heard, indicating relative hearing loss. The di erence between the online tests and the clinical audiometer was determined by subtracting the online test hearing thresholds from the relative thresholds obtained by the clinical audiometer.

If you CANT hear the beeps, RELEASE the SPACEBAR!

Increase amplitude

1. MIS is more accurate than our Bksy test compared to the clinical audiometer. Individal Results
Best Hearing

B. Multiple-Interval Staircase method (MIS).

User selects all audible sounds of a given frequency until a consistant minimum-amplitude threshold is found.

Methods
Tones: pure tones spanning speech-frequency range (0.25-6kHz) 12 participants aged 21 to 71 took both online tests three times over three days to assess test reliability. 5 of these participants were also assessed by a clinical audiometer and were found to have hearing loss ranging from none to severe. All participants were instructed to wear snug around-the-ear headphones and test in a quiet environment. As these tests are not yet calibrated, they reveal hearing loss relative to the users most sensitive hearing.
START Set tone dBs in 10 dB steps

limit number of times player can review a stimulus

Worst Hearing

limit time to respond based on players average response time

Selected individual results above illustrate the di erence in relative hearing thresholds between the online tests and the clinical audiometer. Individuals thresholds are relative to their most sensitive hearing (0 dB), though their actual hearing loss ranges from none to severe.

Di erence Between Online Tests and Clinical Audiometer

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Overestimated Loss

User selects all birds they can hear.

No Are any audible? Yes

Typical route for finding threshold

* p < 0.05

Conclusions
Compared to our Bksy test, the multiple-interval staircase test (MIS) shows relative hearing loss that is signicantly more similar to the loss measured by the clinical audiometer. MIS is also signicantly more reliable than our Bksy test.

Underestimated Loss

Average di erence of online tests from the Both tests overestimate low-frequency hearing loss, but our clinical audiometric relative hearing thresholds. Bksy test also underestimates high frequency loss. MIS is signicantly more accurate than This di erence is signicant (p < 0.05). Online test bias is highly our Bksy test (T1: m = 9.2, T2: m = 6.2, p < 0.05). correlated with frequency (T1: r = -0.75, p < 0.05; T2: r = -0.85, p < 0.01).

No sounds are audible.

Both online tests overestimate low-frequency hearing loss. We are currently investigating this bias.
Increase all amplitudes by 30 dB

Some sounds are audible.

Adapt dBs to the threshold (quietest selected sound)

2. The novel method is more reliable.

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RETEST THIS FREQUENCY TEST NEW FREQUENCY

Set tone dBs to 4 dB steps around threshold

No

Is threshold consistent with last time?

** p < 0.01

Yes Current threshold is the absolute hearing threshold for this frequency
Average di erence between relative hearing thresholds from day 2 to 3. MIS has signicantly less di erence across retest (T1: m = 5.9, T2: m = 4.5, p < 0.01).