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Click evoked middle ear muscle reflex: Spectral and temporal aspectsa
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Click evoked middle ear muscle reflex: Spectral and temporal aspectsa

Sriram Boothalingam and Shawn S Goodman
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol.149(4), pp.2628-2643
04/01/2021
DOI: 10.1121/10.0004217
PMID: 33940882

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Abstract

This study describes a time series-based method of middle ear muscle reflex (MEMR) detection using bilateral clicks. Although many methods can detect changes in the otoacoustic emissions evoking stimulus to monitor the MEMR, they do not discriminate between true MEMR-mediated vs artifactual changes in the stimulus. We measured MEMR in 20 young clinically normal hearing individuals using 1-s-long click trains presented at six levels (65 to 95 dB peak-to-peak sound pressure level in 6 dB steps). Changes in the stimulus levels over the 1 s period were well-approximated by two-term exponential functions. The magnitude of ear canal pressure changes due to MEMR increased monotonically as a function of click level but non-monotonically with frequency when separated into 1/3 octave wide bands between 1 and 3.2 kHz. MEMR thresholds estimated using this method were lower than that obtained from a clinical tympanometer in similar to 94% of the participants. A time series-based method, along with statistical tests, may provide additional confidence in detecting the MEMR. MEMR effects were smallest at 2 kHz, between 1 and 3.2 kHz, which may provide avenues for minimizing the MEMR influence while measuring other responses (e.g., the medial olivocochlear reflex).
 Acoustics Audiology & Speech-Language Pathology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Science & Technology Technology

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