Critical bandwidth in patients with a hearing loss induced by salicylates.

During a slight temporary salicylate-induced hearing loss, the normal loudness difference between broad-band noise and narrow-band noise was markedly reduced at all levels, except the highest. The critical band, measured at 1 kHz by means of a loudness summation method, appeared to become wider in 9 out of 16 subjects, to a degree roughly proportional to the degree of hearing loss. However, some discrepancies in the data and a rather large intersubject variability of the loudness estimates were present. The localization of the mechanism which forms the basis for the critical band concept is discussed in view of the results.