The proposed research is directed toward a better understanding of subjective tinnitus. Adaptive psychophysical procedures are reported which provide an objective description of the loudness of an individual's tinnitus. Because of abnormal adaptation in the frequency region above the individual's tinnitus, it is difficult to obtain a precise description of the pitch of high-pitched tinnitus accompanying high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss. To resolve this and similar adaptation-based problems, a series of experiments dealing with auditory adaptation will be conducted. Adaptation will be studied across the audible frequency spectrum for signals ranging from pure tones, modulated tones, to bands of noise. An objective description of a person's tinnitus will provide landmarks to allow us to study the masking of tinnitus in order to determine if the mechanism of masking tinnitus is like conventional auditory masking or involves some other processes.
