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Reflection-Source Emissions Evoked with Clicks and Frequency Sweeps: Comparisons Across Levels

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Abstract

According to coherent reflection theory, otoacoustic emissions (OAE) evoked with clicks (clicked-evoked, CE) or tones (stimulus frequency, SF) originate via the same mechanism. We test this hypothesis in gerbils by investigating the similarity of CE- and SFOAEs across a wide range of stimulus levels. The results show that OAE transfer functions measured in response to clicks and sweeps have nearly equivalent time–frequency characteristics, particularly at low stimulus levels. At high stimulus levels, the two OAE types are more dissimilar, reflecting the different dynamic properties of the evoking stimulus. At mid to high stimulus levels, time–frequency analysis reveals contributions from at least two OAE source components of varying latencies. Interference between these components explains the emergence of strong spectral microstructure. Time–frequency filtering based on mean basilar-membrane (BM) group delays (τBM) shows that late-latency OAE components (latency ~ 1.6τBM) dominate at low stimulus intensities and exhibit highly compressive growth with increasing stimulus intensity. In contrast, early-latency OAE components (~ 0.7τBM) are small at low stimulus levels but can come to dominate the overall response at higher intensities. Although the properties of long-latency OAEs are consistent with an origin via coherent reflection near the peak of the traveling wave, the generation place and/or mechanisms responsible for the early-latency OAE components warrant further investigation. Because their delay remains in constant proportion to τBM across sound intensity, long-latency OAEs, whether evoked with tones or clicks, can be used to predict characteristics of cochlear processing, such as the sharpness of frequency tuning, even at high stimulus levels.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Alessandro Altoè for many helpful discussions.

Funding

This study was financially supported by grants K99 DC016906-01A1 (KKC) and R01 DC003687 (CAS) from the NIH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Caruso Department of Otolaryngology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Karolina K. Charaziak & Christopher A. Shera

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Christopher A. Shera

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  1. Karolina K. Charaziak
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Correspondence to Karolina K. Charaziak.

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Charaziak, K.K., Shera, C.A. Reflection-Source Emissions Evoked with Clicks and Frequency Sweeps: Comparisons Across Levels. JARO 22, 641–658 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10162-021-00813-3

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