Otoacoustic Emissions - 45 Years Later

Dear Colleagues,

After the discovery of otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) by David Kemp 45 years ago, we still do not understand how they are generated. Do OAEs arise from a mechanism essential for hearing, or are they just an interesting by-product? During the past half a century, various models have been proposed to explain the generation of OAEs. One of them was by Kemp himself in “Towards a model for the origin of cochlear echoes” (1980) [1]. In this model, the OAE “is the arrival at the basal termination of the cochlear transmission line of a backward travelling wave, created by reflection of a forward travelling wave at localized mechanical impedance discontinuities. The model does not account for the nonlinearity, physiological vulnerability and narrow band tuning of OAEs. These properties must be attributed to the source, proposed to be motion of the hair cell structure”. Spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) are, in most models, attributed to the source and mathematically treated as an active oscillator. Shera (2002) [2], however, states that “SOAEs do not require the autonomous mechanical oscillation of the cellular constituents of the ear, but are cochlear standing waves, produced by the cochlea acting as an analog of a laser oscillator”. The standing waves are produced by “coherent scattering”, a novel reflection mechanism akin to Bragg scattering. (Zweig and Shera, 1995) [3]. How close are any of those models to the truth of the matter? This Special Issue aims to provide a wide-ranging assessment.

Do the models set out above explain all we know about OAEs? What have we learned from extensive use of OAEs in clinical practice? How well can the models explain SOAEs in frogs and lizards? How consistent is coherent reflection theory? Your contributions are eagerly awaited.

References

1. Kemp, D.T. Towards a model for the origin of cochlear echoes. Hearing Research 1980, 2, 533–548, doi: 10.1016/0378-5955(80)90091-X.
2. Shera, C.A.; Guinan, J.J.; Oxenham, A.J. Revised estimates of human cochlear tuning from otoacoustic and behavioral measurements. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2002, 99, 3318–3323, doi: 10.1073/pnas.032675099.
3. Zweig, G.; Shera, C.A. The origin of periodicity in the spectrum of evoked otoacoustic emissions. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1995, 98, 2018–2047, doi: 10.1121/1.413320.

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• Inner ear model
• Cochlea
• Otoacoustic emissions
• Basilar membrane
• Lizard ear
• Traveling wave
• Standing wave
• Irregularities
• Coherent reflection
• Oscillators