title: The role of the medial olivocochlear system in the complaints of understanding speech in noisy environments by individuals with normal hearing.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of our study is to investigate the relationship between the complaint of speech understanding in noisy environments and the findings of contralateral suppression of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions and speech recognition in noise test methods in individuals with normal hearing.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-nine subjects between 18 and 53 years of age with normal hearing participated in the present study. The subjects were assigned to one of two groups, reported difficulty understanding speech in noise or no reported difficulty understanding speech in noise. After hearing and immitancemetric evaluation, contralateral suppression of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions and speech recognition in noise tests were administered to both groups. Suppression was calculated in half-octave frequency bands centered at 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0kHz.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found out that the speech recognition in noise scores and contralateral suppression values were lower in subjects with the complaint of speech understanding in noise than those who do not have such complaints.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We concluded that the complaint of speech understanding in noise may be related to the medial efferent system dysfunction, so central auditory nervous system.
authors.affiliation: Audiology and Speech Pathology Section, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. sunatokgoz@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Suna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tokgoz-Yilmaz
authors.forename: Serdal Kenan
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Kose
authors.forename: Meral Didem
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Turkyilmaz
authors.forename: Gamze
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Atay
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003051:Cochlea / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D009847:Olivary Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous / Q000502:physiology; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Contralateral suppression; Speech recognition in noise; Transient evoked otoacoustic emission