BACKGROUND The two ears are linked with a neural pathway such that stimulation of one ear has a modulating effect on the contralateral cochlea. This is mediated by cochlear afferent neurons connecting with olivo-cochlear efferents. The monitoring of this pathway is easily achieved by measuring contralateral suppression of otoacoustic emissions, and there is some clinical value in the ability to...

Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) are low amplitude sound waves produced by the healthy cochlea. They can be recorded with a microphone in the external ear. TEOAEs are abolished by hearing losses of 30 dB or more. The feasibility of using TEOAEs as a screening test for hearing loss in children was studied. TEOAE recordings were attempted in 56 children attending an audiology clini...

OBJECTIVE To assess contralateral suppression of transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions in patients with fibromyalgia syndrome and normal hearing. METHODS Twenty-four female patients with fibromyalgia syndrome and 24 healthy female controls with normal hearing were assessed using pure tone audiometry and transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions. RESULTS All patients with fibromyalgia synd...

The recent achievement on the measurement of otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) is based on a novel technical development of digital signal processing. OAEs measured in the external ear canal are normal by-products of the active process in hearing, which was discovered by Kemp (1978). Outer hair cells (OHCs) are thought to be the active source in the generation of this energy. Signal processing metho...

Evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAEs) are assumed to be generated by outer hair cells (OHCs). It is now generally accepted that EOAEs represent a means of functional exploration of the active micromechanical properties of OHCs. Efferent fibers of the medial olivocochlear system (MOCS) are connected along the sides and the bases of OHCs. Some studies have shown that a suppression effect on EOAE a...

1 a Hyper-responsive Medial Olivocochlear System in Humans with 2 Tinnitus and Hyperacusis 3 4 Inge M. Knudson, Christopher A. Shera, Jennifer R. Melcher 5 6 1 Dept. of Otology and Laryngology, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 7 2 Dept. of Otolaryngology, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Boston MA 8 3 Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology Program, Harvard-MIT Division of 9 Health Sc...

The present study aimed at characterizing the suppressing effect of contralateral medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferents on human auditory sensitivity and mechanical cochlear responses at sound levels near behavioral thresholds. Absolute thresholds for pure tones of 500 and 4000 Hz with durations between 10-500 ms were measured in the presence and in the absence of a contralateral broadband noise...