In the field of auditory neuroscience, acoustic reflex is a useful clinical test for hearing diagnosis and site of lesion assessment. Nevertheless, the latency measurement of acoustic reflex has not been widely studied and more research efforts are warranted. The present study aimed to determine the influences age, gender and stimulus frequency on acoustic reflex latency (ARL) among healthy adults. Seventy-two Malaysian adults (35 males and 37 females) participated in this prospective comparative study. They were categorized into three age groups: young adults (n = 30, mean age of 26.6 ± 4.3 years), middle-aged adults (n = 21, mean age of 45.8 ± 5.7 years) and older adults (n = 21, mean age of 58.2 ± 1.2 years). They underwent the standard ipsilateral acoustic reflex testing and ARL results were analyzed at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz. The mean ARL values obtained are in line with the previous reports. While no significant influences of gender and stimulus frequency were found on ARL results, the mean ARL values were statistically higher in the older adults than in the other age groups. To conclude, a notable effect of age was found on the latency of acoustic reflex. In contrast, the ARL results do not appear to be influenced by either gender or stimulus frequency. The age-specific normative data for ARL gathered from the present study (n = 144) are useful for clinical and future research applications, particularly among Malaysian population.

Acoustic reflex, Age, Gender, Onset latency, Stimulus frequency