Reliability and Contralateral Suppression of Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions in Human

Abstract

Previous studies showed that a contralateral acoustic stimulation induces the amplitude reduction effect in the 2f₁-f₂ distortion products (DPOAEs). And it is well accepted that this contralateral DPOAE suppression is due to an action of the olivocochlear efferent system. However, the clinical utility of the suppressive effect of a contralateral sound is unclear. We investigated the contralateral auditory stimulation effect and a test/retest reliability on DPOAEs recorded in humans with normal hearing. Under a relatively stable test condition, the repeatability of DPOAE measurement seemed to be high enough to prove the existence of contralateral DPOAE suppression. Although some technical problems still remain, the contralateral suppression is expected to provide the informations of the olivocochlear system functioning in humans.