Distortion product otoaocustic emission fine structure of symphony orchestra musicians

摘要

Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) are sounds produced by the healthy inner ear. Theycan be measured as low-level signals in the ear canal and are used to monitor thefunctioning of outer hair cells. Several studies indicate that OAE might be a moresensitive measure to detect early noise-induced haring losses than pure-tone audiometry.The distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) fine structure is obtainedwhen the ear is stimulated by dual tone stimuli using a high frequency resolution. Itis characterized by quasi-periodic variations across frequency, as it can be observedin the hearing threshold microstructure also. In this study DPOAE fine structuresand hearing thresholds are obtained for symphony orchestra musicians both for leftand right ears and before and after the orchestra rehearsal. DPOAE fine structuresare analyzed with an automatic classification algorithm, which describes the ripplepattern by parameters. A difference between left and right ears could be detected forthe DPOAE level but not for the fine structure parameters. No difference betweenthe measures taken before and after exposure could be observed.