New Method for Pure-Tone Audiometry Using Electrooculogram: A Proof-of-Concept Study

Precise and timely evaluation of an individual’s hearing loss plays an important role in determining appropriate treatment strategies, including medication and aural rehabilitation. However, currently available hearing assessment systems do not satisfy the need for an objective assessment tool with a simple and non-invasive procedure. In this paper, we propose a new method for pure-tone audiometry, which may potentially be used to assess an individual’s hearing ability objectively and quantitatively, without need for the user’s active response. The proposed method is based on the auditory oculogyric reflex, where the eyes involuntary rotate towards the source of a sound, in response to spatially moving pure-tone audio stimuli modulated at specific frequencies and intensities. We quantitatively analyzed horizontal electrooculograms (EOG) recorded with a pair of electrodes under two conditions—when pure-tone stimuli were (1) “inaudible” or (2) “audible” to a participant. Preliminary experimental results showed significantly increased EOG amplitude in the audible condition compared to the inaudible condition for all ten healthy participants. This demonstrates potential use of the proposed method as a new non-invasive hearing assessment tool.