| Abstrakt: |
The intra-aural muscle reflex was studied in human subjects using the method of tympanomanometry previously reported (4th International Conference on Medical Electronics, New York, July 16-21, 1961). Little attention has been given to the particular characteristics of the reflex itself, i.e., which muscles are involved, latency, amplitude, or duration of contraction. Instead, interest was focused on the relative ease or difficulty with which various acoustic stimuli were capable of eliciting a just-demonstrable reflex. Thus, seven different stimuli, whose amplitude envelope varied as a function of time, were presented at five different frequencies to a panel of subjects. Reflex 'thresholds' were determined for each stimulus and compared to the detection-level threshold for the same signal. Results of these and other observations are reviewed, and the possible theoretic and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
