Comparison of distortion-product otoacoustic emission growth rates and slopes of forward-masked psychometric functions

Joyce Rodríguez, Stephen T. Neely, Walt Jesteadt, Hongyang Tan, Michael P. Gorga

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Slopes of forward-masked psychometric functions (FM PFs) were compared with distortion-product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) input/output (I/O) parameters at 1 and 6 kHz to test the hypothesis that these measures provide similar estimates of cochlear compression. Implicit in this hypothesis is the assumption that both DPOAE I/O and FM PF slopes are functionally related to basilar-membrane (BM) response growth. FM PF-slope decreased with signal level, but this effect was reduced or reversed with increasing hearing loss; there was a trend of decreasing psychometric function (PF) slope with increasing frequency, consistent with greater compression at higher frequencies. DPOAE I/O functions at 6 kHz exhibited an increase in the breakpoint of a two-segment slope as a function of hearing loss with a concomitant decrease in the level of the distortion product (L d). Results of the comparison between FM PF and DPOAE I/O parameters revealed only a weak correlation, suggesting that one or both of these measures may provide unreliable information about BM compression.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)864-875
Number of pages12
JournalJournal of the Acoustical Society of America
Volume129
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Acoustics and Ultrasonics

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