title: Effect of middle ear on otoacoustic emissions.
abstract: Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are believed to originate from outer hair cell movement and are considered to be transmitted to the external auditory meatus through the middle ear in a retrograde fashion. Therefore, the effect of the middle-ear on OAEs seems to be large. However, few investigations of middle-ear effects on OAEs have been published because no apparatus that can measure the middle-ear dynamic characteristics is easily available except a conventional impedance meter. We developed a sweep frequency impedance meter (SFI) which gives us much more information on middle-ear dynamic characteristics than a conventional impedance meter. In this paper, applying SFI and 3 OAE measuring apparatuses, middle-ear dynamic characteristics and different sorts of OAEs of human subjects and guinea pigs were measured, and an attempt was made to examine the relationship between OAEs and middle-ear dynamic characteristics from various aspects. It is concluded that frequency characteristics of OAEs correlate well with middle-ear frequency characteristics; and middle-ear effect on OAEs must be taken into account when OAE data are analyzed.
authors: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
authors: H
authors: H
authors: Wada
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Ohyama
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Kobayashi
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Koike
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Noguchi
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000818:Animals; D003051:Cochlea / Q000502:physiology*; D004432:Ear, Middle / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006198:Hair Cells, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous / Q000502:physiology; D018058:Tympanic Membrane Perforation / Q000503:physiopathology