Effects of Blast Trauma (Impulse Noise) on Hearing: A Parametric Study. Part 1

摘要

There are three broad goals to this project. The first and primary goal is to begin the systematic development of a database from which one could estimate the hazards to hearing resulting from exposure to blast waves or other high level impulse noise transients. To achieve this primary objective the following two objectives must first be achieved: (1) to develop a methodology to efficiently acquire data ona large number of experimental animals that have been exposed to a variety variables; (2) to develop a set of blast wave simulation devices which can reliably generate blast waves with a variable distribution of spectral energy in an environment. This report will describe progress that was achieved on each of these objectives. The evaluation of hearing consisted of pre- and postexposure measurements of pure tone thresholds and tuning curves (masked thresholds). Quantitative and qualitative data on each experimental cochlea was obtained from the traditional surface preparation technique. Keywords: Physiological effects; Stress physiology; Hearing; Blast waves; Exposure physiology; Tables data. (kt)