Professional musicians often suffer from occupational hearing loss. Permanent threshold shifts occur frequently especially among young pop musicians. It is assumed that changes in the central processing of auditory signals reflect a functional reorganization following a peripheral (cochlear) damage. To assess the hearing ability we evaluated sound emissions in the orchestras and recorded hearing levels by audiometry and otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE/DPOAE) as well as mismatch negativity (MMN) to auditory stimuli by using EEG and MEG. Data were collected from 172 professional musicians aged 11-69 years from a music school and three major German orchestras. Orchestral musicians are exposed to sound pressure levels up to 120 dB SPL. After 12 years in employment 52 % of the musicians suffer from hearing damage. The MMN 200 ms after the stimulus was significantly larger in musicians vs. non-musicians regardless of pure-tone or out of tune chords. Among the strings the data differed between right and left ears. To assess the mechanisms of occupational hearing loss and to diagnose the damage not only the hearing threshold shifts but also influenced parameters of central auditory processing have to be investigated.

Supported by Berufsgenossenschaft Nahrungsmittel und Gaststätten (BGN)