MOC efferent activation restores auditory nerve dynamic range in noise

Evidence

A more widely accepted role is that the MOCR possibly facilitates understanding speech in noisy environments. This idea is based on the fact that MOC efferent activation restores the dynamic range of auditory nerve fibre responses in noisy backgrounds to values observed in quiet (Fig. 5 in Guinan 2006 ), something that probably improves the neural coding of speech embedded in noise — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1939

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• DEFINE: The ‘unmasking’ role of the MOCR is defined here: restoring nerve dynamic range reduces the masking of speech by noise.

Related

• The efferent reflex may improve speech-in-noise coding by restoring neural dynamic range (similarity 0.94)
• The olivocochlear reflex may unmask speech from noise via dynamic-range restoration (similarity 0.93)
• MOC reflex’s speech-in-noise unmasking role remains unproven in humans (similarity 0.87)
• MOCR speech-in-noise unmasking remains unproven because selective deactivation is impossible in humans (similarity 0.86)
• Medial olivocochlear efferents actively modulate cochlear gain during binaural listening (similarity 0.84)
• Brain efferents can dynamically adjust cochlear gain during listening (similarity 0.84)
• MOC efferents reflexively modulate cochlear gain via outer hair cells (similarity 0.84)
• Auditory dynamic range adapts moment-to-moment via reflexive efferent state (similarity 0.83)
• MOCR gain reduction interacts with suppression to reduce it (similarity 0.82)
• Masker durations over 25 ms trigger efferent feedback that reduces measured suppression (similarity 0.82)
• Basilar membrane suppression can be altered by the sluggish medial olivocochlear reflex (similarity 0.82)
• Masking measured within the efferent onset delay isolates gain reduction cleanly (similarity 0.81)
• The modeled efferent effects likely generalize to natural acoustic hearing (similarity 0.81)
• Missing efferent benefits may explain cochlear-implant users’ speech-in-noise deficits (similarity 0.80)
• Masker duration gates whether the medial olivocochlear reflex contributes to measured gain (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• The MOC reflex restores auditory dynamic range in noisy backgrounds #corroborates (1.00) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1942
• Brain efferents can dynamically adjust cochlear gain during listening #expands (0.80) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 1939
• Efferent stimulation maximally suppresses basilar membrane vibration near the characteristic frequency #expands (0.75) — Dijk, Pim van, Physiology, Psychoacoustics and…, 5955