title: Exploration of stimulus-frequency otoacoustic emission suppression tuning in hearing-impaired listeners.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) can provide useful measures of tuning of auditory filters. We previously established that stimulus-frequency (SF) OAE suppression tuning curves (STCs) reflect major features of behavioral tuning (psychophysical tuning curves, PTCs) in normally-hearing listeners. Here, we aim to evaluate whether SFOAE STCs reflect changes in PTC tuning in cases of abnormal hearing.
  
  
  METHODS
  PTCs and SFOAE STCs were obtained at 1 kHz and/or 4 kHz probe frequencies. For exploratory purposes, we collected SFOAEs measured across a wide frequency range and contrasted them to commonly measured distortion product (DP) OAEs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirteen listeners with varying degrees of sensorineural hearing loss.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Except for a few listeners with the most hearing loss, the listeners had normal/nearly normal PTCs. However, attempts to record SFOAE STCs in hearing-impaired listeners were challenging and sometimes unsuccessful due to the high level of noise at the SFOAE frequency, which is not a factor for DPOAEs. In cases of successful measurements of SFOAE STCs there was a large variability in agreement between SFOAE STC and PTC tuning.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results indicate that SFOAE STCs cannot substitute for PTCs in cases of abnormal hearing, at least with the paradigm adopted in this study.
authors.affiliation: The Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, School of Communication, Northwestern University , Evanston , USA.
authors.forename: Karolina K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Charaziak
authors.forename: Pamela E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Souza
authors.forename: Jonathan H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Siegel
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001307:Auditory Perception; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003051:Cochlea / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous / Q000502:physiology*; D010470:Perceptual Masking / Q000502:physiology; D011601:Psychophysics
keywords: Frequency selectivity; hearing impairment; otoacoustic emissions; psychophysical tuning curve; suppression tuning curve