Cochlear otoacoustic emissions measurably shift behavioral thresholds, selectivity, and loudness

Evidence

Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are faint sounds that travel from the cochlea back through the middle ear and are measured in the external auditory canal. Since their discovery in the late 1970s by David Kemp ( 1978 ), they have been used in the clinic to evaluate the health of outer hair cells (OHC) and in research to gain scientific insight into cochlear mechanics. Behaviorally they have been shown to predict the pattern of pure-tone quiet thresholds (Long and Tubis 1988 ; Lee and Long 2012 ; Dewey and Dhar 2014 ), auditory frequency selectivity, (Baiduc et al. 2014 ), and loudness perception (Mauermann et al. 2004 ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5757

In the clinic, otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) provide a fast, noninvasive means to assess auditory function. Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are faint sounds that travel from the cochlea back through the middle ear and are measured in the external auditory canal. Since their discovery in the late 1970s by David Kemp ( 1978 ), they have been used in the clinic to evaluate the health of outer hair cells (OHC) and in research to gain scientific insight into cochlear mechanics. Behaviorally they have been shown to predict the pattern of pure-tone quiet thresholds (Long and Tubis 1988 ; Lee and Long 2012 ; Dewey and Dhar 2014 ), auditory frequency selectivity, (Baiduc et al. 2014 ), and loudness perception (Mauermann et al. 2004 ). — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5761

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines OAEs as reverse-propagating cochlear sounds measurable in the ear canal, grounding later argument.
• XREF: Links to the reader’s core interest in bridging cochlear mechanics (physiology) to behavioral perception (psychoacoustics). — connects to: The cochlea actively amplifies sound and emits echoes that reveal inner-ear health; Psychoacoustic tuning curves directly reflect cochlear mechanical processing. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 223; Otoacoustic emission levels predict individual decision weights in level discrimination tasks — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5795 (+3 more)
• corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5757; Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5761

Broader Connections

• Human efferent tuning measured psychoacoustically matches otoacoustic-emission measures #corroborates (0.85)
• Otoacoustic emission levels predict individual decision weights in level discrimination tasks #expands (0.82) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5795