Despite animal evidence that the reticulospinal system is of major importance to movement, this motor pathway has remained relatively inaccessible to experimentation in the human. Consequently, little is known about its function in health and disease. Here, we use the acoustic startle reflex to demonstrate that one type of reticulospinal activity in the human is associated with a characteristic...

Otoacoustic emission (OAE) amplitude can be reduced by acoustic stimulation. This effect is produced by the medial olivocochlear (MOC) reflex. Past studies have shown that the MOC reflex is related to listening in noise and attention. In the present study, the relationship between strength of the contralateral MOC reflex and masked threshold was investigated in 19 adults. Detection thresholds w...

OBJECTIVE To introduce the endoscopic acoustic stapedial reflex (EASR) as a technique for assessing stapedial mobility in ears with chronic otitis media (COM). METHODS This prospective study was performed from February 2008 to February 2009, patients with COM presented to the Otology Clinic, King Abdul-Aziz University Hospital, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were examined with a rigid ear en...

In a noise environment devoid of impulsive sounds the ear responds as a linear system to levels sufficient to destroy it in response to energy input. In such environments a long time average Aweighted measurement will provide a suitable measure of exposure. In an environment characterised by impulsive sounds, however, it is proposed that the response of the ear is determined by the response tim...

The stapedius muscle, which is located in the middle ear, goes into contraction when the ear is exposed to high sound intensities. This muscle activation is called 'the acoustic reflex'. Measurement of the acoustic reflex is clinically of importance since it can reveal diagnostic information about the middle ear's pathologies. Moreover, this muscle-activation alters the acoustic characteristics...