Vibrotactile Thresholds in Pure Tone Audiometry

Abstract

Research into vibrotactile sensations at the ear is complicated by the problem of distinguishing them from auditory sensations. Normal hearing subjects may have difficulty in dissociating the two sensations while profoundly deaf subjects may never have experienced an auditory sensation. Ths paper describes experiments with unilaterally deaf subjects. It was found that they could consistently distinguish between the two sensations and could therefore give a measure of vibrotactile threshold. The results indicated that vibrotactile responses are very probable when testing profoundly deaf subjects with a standard clinical audiometer, and that individuals vary considerably in their vibrotactile sensitivity. It was not found possible to predict vibrotactile sensitivity at the ear from that at the fingertips.