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Service members face a significant risk of hearing impairment due to prolonged exposure to loud sounds in military settings. Detecting early signs of hearing loss is challenging, as they are often subtle and not easily identified through conventional clinical tests. In our study, we investigated the effects of noise exposure on electrophysiological, behavioral, and self-report measures of hearing damage in young adults, including both military and non-military individuals with normal audiometric thresholds. Participants completed a comprehensive test battery, covering standard and extended high-frequency pure-tone audiometry (0.25–16 kHz), a noise exposure structured interview, electrocochleography (ECochG), amplitude modulation (AM) detection threshold, and spatial release from speech-on-speech masking (SRM). Preliminary ECochG analyses suggested physiological deficits indicative of cochlear synaptopathy in service members. The discussion will focus on the correlation between physiological results and perceptual findings obtained through AM and SRM measures, aiming to understand the links between observed deficits and the perceptual challenges faced by service members in the context of subclinical hearing damage induced by noise exposure.
Monfiletto et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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