OTOACOUSTIC EMISSIONS - MEASUREMENT, DATA AND INTERRELATIONS

The present study was designed to investigate the relationship among s ubject's biological factors, stimulus parameters, and otoacoustic emis sions (OAEs), as well as the interrelations among different forms of O AEs. Spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs), transient evoked otoac oustic emissions (TEOAEs) and distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) were measured in 16 normal-hearing human subjects. The resul ts showed (1) a gender effect on the presence/absence of SOAEs, and on the response levels of TEOAEs and DPOAEs, (2) a tendency of right ear OAE advantage, and (3) that the presence/absence of SOAEs play a role in the response level of TEOAEs, which was correlated with the respon se level of DPOAEs. We have concluded that the different forms of OAEs describe the status of the cochlear function from somewhat different perspectives. Moreover, some issues, e.g. the estimation of true TEOAE s from commonly recorded TEOAE; and a possible solution for the proble ms of ear canal standing waves in measuring DPOAEs were discussed.