A method of evaluating hearing in a subject is described. The method includes delivering a pre-pulse auditory stimulus to the subject, allowing a stimulus gap from 10 to 200 milliseconds to pass, delivering an auditory startle stimulus to the subject, measuring the startle response of the subject, and determining if the startle response of the subject to the auditory startle stimulus has decreased compared with a control value for the startle response, repeating these steps until the pre-pulse auditory stimulus administered has a value sufficient to cause a decrease in the startle response of the subject, and determining that the subject has hearing loss if the pre-pulse auditory stimulus required to decrease the startle response is higher than a pre-pulse auditory stimulus threshold value for the subject. The method can be used to evaluate the effect of drugs on hearing, both in terms of hearing loss and improved hearing.
