FIG. 3.

Tinnitus spectra and loudness. A Tinnitus spectra vary with tinnitus bandwidth (tonal, ringing, and hissing tinnitus). The broken line denotes a rating of 40 on a Borg CR100 scale, indicating that the sound is beginning to resemble the tinnitus. B The tinnitus spectrum peaks at 6 kHz in poorer hearing tinnitus subjects but continues to rise to higher frequencies in better hearing tinnitus subjects (tinnitus bandwidths combined). Better hearing subjects had hearing thresholds ≤35 dB HL at 8 kHz (poorer hearing subjects had hearing thresholds >35 dB HL at 8 kHz). C The tinnitus spectrum covered higher frequencies when the audiometric edge was above 4 kHz. The three tinnitus bandwidths are combined. D Tinnitus loudness is greater when matched using sound frequencies outside of the region of hearing loss. Tinnitus loudness matches are shown separately for the Hamilton and Vancouver cohorts (averaged over tinnitus bandwidth). Loudness matches for tonal cases and their audiogram converted to SPL are also given for the Hamilton sample only. The inset contrasts the difference between the latter two functions at 1 and 6 kHz (tinnitus loudness).