Objectives: Detection thresholds in quiet become adult-like earlier in childhood for high than low frequencies. When adults listen for sounds near threshold, they tend to engage in behaviors that reduce physiologic noise (e.g., quiet breathing), which is predominantly low frequency. Children may not suppress self-generated noise to the same extent as adults, such that low-frequency self-generated noise elevates thresholds in the associated frequency regions. This possibility was evaluated by measuring noise levels in the ear canal simultaneous with adaptive threshold estimation.
Design: Listeners were normal-hearing children (4.3 to 16.0 years) and adults. Detection thresholds were measured adaptively for 250-, 1000-, and 4000-Hz pure tones using a three-alternative forced-choice procedure. Recordings of noise in the ear canal were made while the listeners performed this task, with the earphone and microphone routed through a single foam insert. Levels of self-generated noise were computed in octave-wide bands. Age effects were evaluated for four groups: 4- to 6-year olds, 7- to 10-year olds, 11- to 16-year olds, and adults.
Results: Consistent with previous data, the effect of child age on thresholds was robust at 250 Hz and fell off at higher frequencies; thresholds of even the youngest listeners were similar to adults’ at 4000 Hz. Self-generated noise had a similar low-pass spectral shape for all age groups, although the magnitude of self-generated noise was higher in younger listeners. If self-generated noise impairs detection, then noise levels should be higher for trials associated with the wrong answer than the right answer. This association was observed for all listener groups at the 250-Hz signal frequency. For adults and older children, this association was limited to the noise band centered on the 250-Hz signal. For the two younger groups of children, this association was strongest at the signal frequency, but extended to bands spectrally remote from the 250-Hz signal. For the 1000-Hz signal frequency, there was a broadly tuned association between noise and response only for the two younger groups of children. For the 4000-Hz signal frequency, only the youngest group of children demonstrated an association between responses and noise levels, and this association was particularly pronounced for bands below the signal frequency.
Conclusions: These results provide evidence that self-generated noise plays a role in the prolonged development of low-frequency detection thresholds in quiet. Some aspects of the results are consistent with the possibility that self-generated noise elevates thresholds via energetic masking, particularly at 250 Hz. The association between behavioral responses and noise spectrally remote from the signal frequency is also consistent with the idea that self-generated noise may also reflect contributions of more central factors (e.g., inattention to the task). Evaluation of self-generated noise could improve diagnosis of minimal or mild hearing loss.
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