On the wavelet-based elimination of stimulus artifacts in click-evoked otoacoustic emissions

摘要

Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) are very low-level acoustic responses generated by a healthy cochlea during the normal hearing process. This paper focuses on the detection of click-evoked OAE (CEOAE), using wavelet decomposition, to assist on the diagnosis of possible peripheral hearing disfunctions. A complete wavelet-based modeling procedure for the CEOAE is described, using a powerful toolbox designed for this matter. Simulations indicate that the resulting model reaches correlation levels above 99% with respect to the original CEOAE. Such a match allows an almost-perfect elimination of the stimulus artifact, yielding better detection of the CEOAE and a more precise hearing-system diagnosis.