The influence of aspirin on temporal effects in simultaneous masking with noise and tonal maskers

Abstract

Temporal effects in simultaneous masking were measured before and during the administration of a moderate dose of aspirin that caused about 5–15 dB of temporary hearing loss. The 10-ms, 4.0-kHz signal was presented at the beginning or in the temporal center of a 400-ms masker. The masker was either a broadband noise presented at a spectrum level of 10 or 20 dB SPL or a tone with a frequency of 5.2, 5.4, or 5.6 kHz presented at a level of 80 dB SPL. Consistent with previous results [D. McFadden and C. A. Champlin, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 87, 2634–2642 (1990)], aspirin tended to reduce the temporal effect with the broadband masker (i.e., the overshoot) by decreasing the threshold for the signal at masker onset. Aspirin also tended to reduce the temporal effect in the presence of the tonal masker, but in this case by increasing the threshold for the signal in the temporal center and, to a lesser extent, at masker onset. This differential effect of aspirin suggests that the mechanisms underlying the two temporal effects may differ. [Work supported by NIDCD.]