Abstract
Objective: Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) can provide useful measures of tuning of auditory filters. We previously established that stimulus-frequency (SF) OAE suppression tuning curves (STCs) reflect major features of behavioral tuning (psychophysical tuning curves, PTCs) in normally-hearing listeners. Here, we aim to evaluate whether SFOAE STCs reflect changes in PTC tuning in cases of abnormal hearing. Design: PTCs and SFOAE STCs were obtained at 1 kHz and/or 4 kHz probe frequencies. For exploratory purposes, we collected SFOAEs measured across a wide frequency range and contrasted them to commonly measured distortion product (DP) OAEs. Study sample: Thirteen listeners with varying degrees of sensorineural hearing loss. Results: Except for a few listeners with the most hearing loss, the listeners had normal/nearly normal PTCs. However, attempts to record SFOAE STCs in hearing-impaired listeners were challenging and sometimes unsuccessful due to the high level of noise at the SFOAE frequency, which is not a factor for DPOAEs. In cases of successful measurements of SFOAE STCs there was a large variability in agreement between SFOAE STC and PTC tuning. Conclusions: These results indicate that SFOAE STCs cannot substitute for PTCs in cases of abnormal hearing, at least with the paradigm adopted in this study.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by NIDCD grant DC006014 (P. Souza) Northwestern University, and AAA Student Investigator Research Grant 2011 (K. Charaziak).
Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.