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- Title
Effect of Human Auditory Efferent Feedback on Cochlear Gain and Compression.
- Authors
Yasin, Ifat; Drga, Vit; Plack, Christopher J.
- Abstract
The mammalian auditory system includes abrainstem-mediated efferent pathway from the superior olivary complex byway of the medial olivocochlear system, which reduces the cochlear response to sound (Warr and Guinan, 1979; Liberman et al., 1996). The human medial olivocochlear response has an onset delay of between 25 and 40 ms and rise and decay constants in the region of280 and 160 ms, respectively (Backus and Guinan, 2006). Physiological studies with nonhuman mammals indicate that onset and decay characteristics of efferent activation are dependent on the temporal and level characteristics of the auditory stimulus (Bacon and Smith, 1991; Guinan and Stankovic, 1996). This study uses a novel psychoacoustical masking technique using aprecursor sound to obtain a measure of the efferent effect in humans. This technique avoids confounds currently associated with other psychoacoustical measures. Both temporal and level dependency of the efferent effect was measured, providing a comprehensive measure of the effect of human auditory efferents on cochlear gain and compression. Results indicate that aprecursor (>20 dB SPL) induced efferent activation, resulting in a decrease in both maximum gain and maximum compression, with linearization of the compressive function for input sound levels between 50 and 70 dB SPL. Estimated gain decreased as precursor level increased, and increased as the silent interval between the precursor and combined masker-signal stimulus increased, consistent with a decay of the efferent effect. Human auditory efferent activation linearizes the cochlear response for mid-level sounds while reducing maximum gain.
- Subjects
OLIVARY nucleus; ACOUSTIC nerve; PSYCHOACOUSTICS; BRAIN stem; AUDITORY pathways; COMPRESSION (Audiology)
- Publication
Journal of Neuroscience, 2014, Vol 34, Issue 46, p15319
- ISSN
0270-6474
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1043-14.2014