Low-frequency and high-frequency distortion product otoacoustic emission suppression in humans

Michael P. Gorga, Stephen T. Neely, Darcia M. Dierking, Judy Kopun, Kristin Jolkowski, Kristin Groenenboom, Hongyang Tan, Bettina Stiegemann

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Distortion product otoacoustic emission suppression (quantified as decrements) was measured for f2 =500 and 4000 Hz, for a range of primary levels (L2), suppressor frequencies (f3), and suppressor levels (L3) in 19 normal-hearing subjects. Slopes of decrement-versus- L3 functions were similar at both f2 frequencies, and decreased as f3 increased. Suppression tuning curves, constructed from decrement functions, were used to estimate (1) suppression for on- and low-frequency suppressors, (2) tip-to-tail differences, (3) QERB, and (4) best frequency. Compression, estimated from the slope of functions relating suppression "threshold" to L2 for off-frequency suppressors, was similar for 500 and 4000 Hz. Tip-to-tail differences, QERB, and best frequency decreased as L2 increased for both frequencies. However, tip-to-tail difference (an estimate of cochlear-amplifier gain) was 20 dB greater at 4000 Hz, compared to 500 Hz. QERB decreased to a greater extent with L2 when f2 =4000 Hz, but, on an octave scale, best frequency shifted more with level when f2 =500 Hz. These data indicate that, at both frequencies, cochlear processing is nonlinear. Response growth and compression are similar at the two frequencies, but gain is greater at 4000 Hz and spread of excitation is greater at 500 Hz.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2172-2190
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of the Acoustical Society of America
Volume123
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2008

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Acoustics and Ultrasonics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Low-frequency and high-frequency distortion product otoacoustic emission suppression in humans'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this