EFFECTS OF THE CONDITIONING CLICK ON CLICK-EVOKED OTOACOUSTIC EMISSION

The effects of the preceding (conditioning) click on the evoked otoaco ustic emission (EOAE) to the following (lest) click were investigated in normally hearing adults. To overcome distortions due to superimposi tion of the test EOAE on the EOAE to the conditioning click, a special stimulation and response subtraction procedure was utilized. The cond itioning stimulus was found to suppress the test EOAE. The suppression lessened with a decrease in the conditioning stimulus level and an in crease in the time interval between the conditioning and the lest stim uli. Nevertheless, the influence was traced even with the level of the conditioning stimulus as low as 5 dB SL, and lasted for the interval between the conditioning and the test stimuli, as long as 7.5ms. An at tempt at theoretical comprehension of the obtained results is made and their usefulness in differentiation of EOAEs from acoustic reflection s is proposed.