Abstract
ObjectivesThe objective of the study was to identify the acute high-intensity recreational noise-induced effects on auditory function, especially the cochlear synaptopathy-related audiological metrics, in humans with normal hearing.MethodsThis prospective cohort study enrolled 32 young adults (14 males and 18 females); the mean age was 24.1 ± 2.4 years (ranging from 20 to 29). All participants with normal hearing (audiometric thresholds ≤25 dB HL at frequencies of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 kHz for both ears) had already decided to participate in the outdoor music festival. Participants were asked to measure the noise exposure dose and complete auditory examinations, including the air-conduction pure-tone audiometry (PTA), distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE), contralateral suppression (CS) on transient evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE), auditory brainstem response (ABR) test and Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test (MHINT), at baseline and 1 day and 14 days after music festival noise exposure.ResultsThe mean time of attending the music festival was 7.34 ± 0.63 h (ranging from 6.4 to 9.5), the mean time-weighted average (TWA) of noise exposure dose was 93.2 ± 2.39 dB(A) (ranging from 87.9 to 97.7). At neither 1 day nor 14 days post exposure, there were no statistically significant effects on PTA thresholds, DPOAE amplitudes, CS on TEOAEs, or MHINT signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of acute outdoor music festival noise exposure, regardless of sex. While the ABR wave I amplitudes significantly decreased at 1 day after exposure and recovered at 14 days after exposure, the exposed/unexposed ABR wave I amplitude ratio was significantly correlated with MHINT SNR change at 1 day after exposure, although it was not correlated with the noise exposure dose.ConclusionIn young adults with normal hearing, we found the self-compared decrement of ABR wave I amplitudes at 1 day post acute recreational noise exposure at high intensity, which also contributes to the change in speech perceptual ability in noisy backgrounds. This study indicated that auditory electrophysiological metric changes might be a more sensitive and efficient indicator of noise-induced cochlear synaptic dysfunction in humans. More attention should be paid to the recreational noise-induced cochlear synaptopathy and auditory perceptual disorder.
Highlights
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14% of adults aged 20–69 years have hearing loss (Hoffman et al, 2017)
Our results provide no evidence that acute noise exposure induces any speech perceptual deficit in noisy environments for normal-hearing young adults, we found that even minor alterations in speech recognition ability in noise were associated with transient auditory brainstem response (ABR) wave I amplitude changes after noise exposure
Benefiting from the prospective design of this study, we were able to catch the transient ABR wave I amplitude decrement at 1 day post acute recreational noise exposure in normal hearing young adults
Summary
According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14% of adults aged 20–69 years have hearing loss (Hoffman et al, 2017). Recent surveys reported that approximately 12– 15% of the population with normal hearing thresholds might have the HHL (Kohrman et al, 2020), which contribute to tinnitus (Schaette and McAlpine, 2011; Gu et al, 2012) and agerelated hearing loss (Sergeyenko et al, 2013; Fernandez et al, 2015; Liberman et al, 2015). It remains unknown whether daily loud recreational noise exposure could induce the irreversible HHL. Many studies have made efforts in the identification of the noise-induced HHL-related auditory function changes in humans, this topic remains controversial, mainly due to the difficulty in controlling of the noise exposure and self-comparison data before and after noise exposure
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