Work

Contralateral Masking in Bilateral Cochlear Implant Patients: A Model of Medial Olivocochlear Function Loss

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: Contralateral masking is the phenomenon where a masker presented to one ear affects the ability to detect a signal in the opposite ear. For normal hearing listeners, contralateral masking results in masking patterns that are both sharper and dramatically smaller in magnitude than ipsilateral masking. The goal of this study was to investigate whether medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferents are needed for the sharpness and relatively small magnitude of the contralateral masking function. To do this, bilateral cochlear implant patients were tested because, by directly stimulating the auditory nerve, cochlear implants circumvent the effects of the MOC efferents. The results indicated that, as with normal hearing listeners, the contralateral masking function was sharper than the ipsilateral masking function. However, although there was a reduction in the magnitude of the contralateral masking function compared to the ipsilateral masking function, it was relatively modest. This is in sharp contrast to the results of normal hearing listeners where the magnitude of the contralateral masking function is greatly reduced. These results suggest that MOC function may not play a large role in the sharpness of the contralateral masking function but may play a considerable role in the magnitude of the contralateral masking function.

Source: PLoS ONE

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0121591

Authors: Justin M. Aronoff, Monica Padilla, Qian-Jie Fu, David M. Landsberger

Institutions: House Clinic, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, New York University, University of California, Los Angeles

Language: English

Topic: Hearing, Cochlea, Tinnitus, Genetics

Subfield: Sensory Systems

Field: Neuroscience

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,382