What frequencies are tested for air conduction?

Air conduction hearing thresholds are measured for tonal stimuli at the range of frequencies from 0.125 kHz to 8 kHz with the use of headphones.

What is the range of frequencies typically tested in pure tone audiometry?

Usually frequencies of 250–8000 Hz are used in testing because this range represents most of the speech spectrum, although the human ear can detect frequencies from 20–20,000 Hz. Some children can detect even higher frequencies. Pure-tone average (PTA) is the average of hearing sensitivity at 500, 1000, and 2000.

What is pure-tone air conduction?

Pure-tone testing is an air conduction test that determines the faintest tones a person can hear at varying pitches, or frequencies. The audiologist will select pitches, from low to high, for a patient to hear. During the test, the patient wears earphones so that data can be collected from each ear.

Why is it recommended to start air conduction testing at 1000 Hz?

1000 Hz, a mid frequency, is a pitch that most people would think of when you tell them that you will present a tone. By starting at a mid frequency, rather than an extreme high or low frequency, the patient is less likely to be confused. Starting at 30 dB HL is arbitrary.

What is pure tone testing?

About Pure-Tone Testing It is also called air conduction testing since the sounds go through your outer and middle ear. This test helps find the quietest sound you can hear at different pitches, or frequencies. Having earphones on lets the sounds go to one ear at a time.

How is pure tone audiometry done?

Pure tone testing (audiogram) — For this test, you wear earphones attached to the audiometer. Pure tones of a specific frequency and volume are delivered to one ear at a time. You are asked to signal when you hear a sound. The minimum volume required to hear each tone is graphed.

How does pure tone audiometry work?

A pure tone audiometry test measures the softest, or least audible, sound that a person can hear. During the test, you will wear earphones and hear a range of sounds directed to one ear at a time. The loudness of sound is measured in decibels (dB). If your speech discrimination is poor, speech may sound garbled.

What produces a pure tone?

Pure tones are simple sine waves at a single frequency. No instrument produces a pure tone, but pure tones are useful in trying to understand how hearing perception works. If the difference were small enough (< 15 Hz) you would hear beats.

What is a pure frequency?

In psychoacoustics, a pure tone is a sound with a sinusoidal waveform; that is, a sine wave of any frequency, phase, and amplitude. A pure tone of any frequency and phase can be decomposed into, or built up from, a sine wave and a cosine wave of that frequency.

What is a pure tone sound wave?

What makes a tone pure?

a pure tone consists of only a single frequency. It’s wave form is a pure sine wave. A complex tone is not a pure sine wave but it is periodic–it has an underlying pattern that repeats.

What is pure-tone testing?

You might remember putting earphones on and raising your hand whenever you heard the “beep.” This is pure-tone testing. It is also called air conduction testing since the sounds go through your outer and middle ear. This test helps find the quietest sound you can hear at different pitches, or frequencies.

What information can be obtained from pure-tone audiometry?

Standard pure-tone audiometry provides diagnostic information regarding the degree, type, and configuration of hearing loss. Hearing thresholds are obtained to air conduction (0.25–8 kHz) and bone conduction (0.5–4 kHz) stimuli. In addition, an initial audiogram should include speech reception thresholds and word recognition scores.

What is the normal range of air conduction threshold?

Normal hearing individuals typically have a hearing threshold level close to 0 dB for both air and bone conduction. Individuals with a hearing disorder of any part of the auditory pathway have poor air-conduction thresholds.

What is an air-conduction test?

In air-conduction testing, a pure tone is presented via an earphone (or a loudspeaker). The signal travels through the air in the outer ear to the middle ear and then to the cochlea in the inner ear.