title: Masking effects in patients with auditory neuropathy-possible involvement of suppression mechanism caused by normal outer hair cell function.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Variations in the effects of masking noise were evaluated in different pathologies of sensorineural hearing loss.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective chart review.
  
  
  METHODS
  Tertiary referral center.
  
  
  METHODS
  Fifty-five ears of 30 patients with sensorineural hearing loss who underwent noise audiometry in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tohoku University Hospital, since 2010, because of complaints of hearing difficulty in noisy environments.
  
  
  METHODS
  Masked threshold for narrow band and white noise.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Masking effects in patients with auditory neuropathy were significantly larger than those in patients with other types of hearing losses. Masking effects of broad band white noise were greater than those of narrow band noise. Masking effects could be observed for white noise even in the elevated unmasked threshold region, where little contribution of excitatory masking effect would be expected. The present findings support the idea that the suppression mechanism caused by normal outer hair cell function is important in the masking phenomenon in patients with auditory neuropathy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuha
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Oda
authors.forename: Tetsuaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kawase
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Takata
authors.forename: Hiromitsu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Miyazaki
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hidaka
authors.forename: Toshimitsu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001299:Audiometry / Q000379:methods; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D018072:Hair Cells, Auditory, Outer / Q000502:physiology*; D006313:Hearing Loss, Central / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult