Effects of intense sound exposures and aspirin on overshoot

Abstract

Brief tonal signals were presented 2 or 190 ms following the onset of a 200‐ms broadband masker. These two conditions of signal delay were tested before and after a series of exposures to a tone intense enough to induce temporary threshold shifts (TTS). The difference in detectability between the short‐ and long‐delay signals (i.e., overshoot) was reduced when a TTS of at least 10 dB was induced, but not when smaller amounts of TTS were induced. This reduction in overshoot was due to an improvement in the postexposure detectability of the signal delayed by 2 ms; the detectability of the signal delayed by 190 ms was unchanged pre‐ and postexposure. Recovery from both the TTS and the reduction of the overshoot followed slightly different time courses. Data are currently being collected for the two conditions of signal delay before and after the production of an aspirin‐induced threshold shift. [Work supported by NIH.]