Abstract
Although it is traditional to perform sound calibrations in anesthetized animals by placing a probe-tube microphone near the tympanic membrane, these measurements are inaccurate at high stimulus frequencies where hearing must be quantified in the mouse. Hence, our motivation to develop another approach using the mouse ear canal as a coupler. Results of real-ear-canal calibrations indicate that an average calibration can be used to estimate sound pressure levels in the three mouse strains tested. Similar estimates were also obtained using a tubing coupler, whose volume was comparable to that of the ear canal, thereby offering a simpler alternative. In addition, real-head calibrations were also performed to provide a procedure that can be used in situations where the ear is not dissected, as in measurements of the auditory brainstem response. Calibrations for open, rather than closed, sound-delivery systems were also evaluated using a modified method of substitution.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 57-67 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of Neuroscience Methods |
Volume | 106 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 30 2001 |
Funding
Work supported in part by grants #DC00089 to P. Dallos and #DC02764 to L. Madison from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, the National Institutes of Health. Comments from Peter Dallos and Jonathan Siegel, as well as three anonymous reviewers, are gratefully acknowledged.
Keywords
- Coupler
- Ear canal
- Method of substitution
- Mouse
- Probe tube
- Sound calibration
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Neuroscience