The potential use of low-frequency tones to locate regions of outer hair cell loss.

In this study, we lowered the concentration of ouabain to 1 mM and determined the physiologic effects on outer hair cells using distortion-product otoacoustic emissions. As well as quantifying the effects of 1 mM ouabain on the auditory nerve and outer hair cells, we attempted to reduce the neural contribution to the CR by using near-infrasonic stimulus frequencies of 45 and 85 Hz, and hypothesized that these low-frequency stimuli would generate a cumulative amplitude function (CAF) that could reflect damage to hair cells in the apex more accurately than the 762 stimuli. One hour after application of 1 mM ouabain, CR amplitudes significantly increased, but remained unchanged in the presence of high-pass filtered noise conditions, suggesting that basal auditory nerve fibers have a limited contribution to the CR at such low frequencies.
PMID: 27677389 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Hearing Research - September 23, 2016 Category: Audiology Authors: Kamerer A, Diaz FJ, Peppi M, Chertoff M Tags: Hear Res Source Type: research