Right-left correlation in guinea pig ears after noise exposure.

In order to investigate whether experimental material consisting of noise-exposed animals should be regarded as 'ears' or 'animals', a comparison was made between the permanent threshold shifts in the right and left ears in 53 groups of noise-exposed guinea-pigs, with 5 animals in each group. The action potential (N1) thresholds were measured at fourteen frequencies in both ears. In the noise-exposed animals, the threshold elevations were up to 40 dB. The average right-left correlation coefficient within each group was about 0.79, regardless of noise energy. The degree of correlation was significantly greater after impact noise than after continuous noise. As a consequence of the high right-left correlation, the informative value of measuring a second ear in the same animal was, in our experiments, only 11% of that of the first one. No correlation could be found between the degree of skin pigmentation and the threshold elevation.